PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


BX  9335  .C4  F72  1882 
Fraser,  Donald,  1826-1892. 
Thomas  Chalmers,  D,D,,  LL.D. 


Shelf. 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Archive 

in  2009  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/thomaschalmersddOOfras 


HEROES  OF  CHRISTIAN  HISTORY, 

A  Series  of  Popular  Biographies 

BY 

EMINENT   ENGLISH    AND   AMERICAN    AUTHORS. 
To  be  issued  at  brie/  intervals. 


l2mo  Vols.,  bound  in  cloth.     Price,  75c.  each. 


A  series  of  short  biographies  of  men  eminent  in  religious  his- 
tory, by  writers  of  recognized  ability.  Popular  in  style,  trust- 
worthy, and  comprehensive,  and  dealing  with  the  most  interesting 
characters  and  events  in  the  story  of  the  Christian  Church.  The 
series  v.dll  condense,  in  entertaining  form,  the  essential  facts  of  the 
great  body  of  religious  literature,  and  will  have  special  value  for 
the  large  class  anxious  for  information  touching  these  great  men, 
but  unable,  by  reason  of  limited  leisure  or  means,  to  read  more 
elaborate  works. 


HENRY  MARTYN. 

By  the  Rev. 

CHARLES  D.  BELL,   M.A.,  D.D.,. 

Honorary  Canon  of  Carlisle,  and  Rector  of  Cheltenham. 


WILLIAM   WILBERFORCE. 

By  the  Rev. 

JOHN  STOUGHTON,  D.D., 

Author  of  "  Homes  and  Haunts  of  Luther,"  "  History  of  Religion  in 

England,"  etc. 


PHILIP   DODDRIDGE. 

By  the  Rev. 

CHARLES  STANFORD,  D.D., 

Author  of  "  Joseph  Alleine,"  "  Homilies  on  Christian  Work. 


STEPHEN   GRELLET. 

By  the  Rev. 

WILLIAM  GUEST,  F.G.S., 

LUthor  of  "  Fidelia  Fiske,"  "The  Young  Man's  Safeguard  in  the  Perils  of 

the  Age,"  etc. 


RICHARD   BAXTER. 

By  the  Rev. 

G.  D.  BOYLE,  M.A., 

Dean  of  Salisbury,  and  late  Vicar  of  Kidderminster, 


JOHN  KNOX. 

By  the  Rev. 

WILLIAM  M.  TA  VLOR,  D.D., 

Of  Neiv  York, 

Author  of  "  The  Limitations  of  Life,"  etc. 


WILLIAM   CAREY. 

By  the  Rev. 

JAMES  CULROSS,  D.D., 

Author  of  *'  The  Disciple  whom  Jesus  Loved." 

ROBERT   HALL. 

By  the  Rev. 

E.  PAX  TON  HOOD, 

Author  of  "  The  World  of  Anecdote,"    "  The  Romance  of  Biography,"  etc. 


FLETCHER    OF    MADELEY. 

By  the  Rev. 
F.  W.  MACDONALD. 

JOHN  WYCLIFFE. 

By  the  Rev. 

JAMES  FLEMING,  B.D., 

Hon.  Chaplain  to  the  Queen,   Canon  of  York,  and  Vicar  of  St.  Michael's, 

Chester  Square. 


THOMAS   CHALMERS,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

By  the  Rev. 

DONALD  ERASER,  D.D., 

Author  of  "  Blending  Lights,"  etc. 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS. 

By  the  Rev. 

H.  SINCLAIR  PA  PERSON,  31. D., 
Author  of  "  Studies  in  Life,"  etc. 


*^*  Copies  sent  by  mail,   post-paid,   on   receipt   of  price. 

New  York:  A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  k  SON,  714  Broadway. 


\U02IAS    CHALMERS, 


v. 


THOMAS    CHALMERS, 

D.D.,  LL.D. 


/by 

DONALD"^  FRASER.    D.D. 


A.    C.    ARMSTRONG    AND    SON, 

714        BROADWAY. 

MDCCCLXXXII. 


PREFACE. 


^T^HE  Memoirs  of  Dr.  Chalmers  by  his  son-in-law, 
JL  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hanna,  were  published  in  four 
volumes  in  the  year  1849.  ^  volume  of  correspondence 
followed.  The  work  is  one  of  great  interest  and  perma- 
nent value  for  all  who  wish  to  know  what  Chalmers  was 
and  to  understand  the  history  of  his  time.  We  have,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  taken  it  as  our  chief  guide  and  authority. 
A  biographical  lihdlus  on  Chalmers  by  the  late  Mr. 
James  Dodds  is  a  vigorous  eulogium.  There  is  also  an 
excellent  and  very  appreciative  sketch  of  his  character- 
istics in  a  volume  on  the  Christian  Life  by  Dr.  Peter 
Bayne,  published  more  than  twenty  years  ago.  From 
such  sources,  with  his  voluminous  writings,  and  the  vivid 
reminiscences  of  him  which  yet  survive,  there  is  no  lack 
of  materials  for  our  little  book.  The  difficulty  rather  lies 
in  the  arrang;cment  and  condensation  of  them. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I.  PAGE 

BIRTH   AND    EDUCATION 9 

CHAPTER    II. 
PARISH    MINISTER   OF   KILMANY     ....  22 

CHAPTER    III. 
PARISH    MINISTER   AT   GLASGOW  ....  42 

CHAPTER  IV. 

PROFESSOR  AT   ST.   ANDREWS  ....  59 

CHAPTER  V-. 

PROFESSOR   IN   THE   UNIVERSITY    OF    EDINBURGH     .  ']'] 

CHAPTER  VI. 

VISITS   TO   ENGLAND   AND   TO    FRANCE  .  .  90 

CHAPTER  VII. 

IN   PUBLIC   QUESTIONS   AND   AFFAIRS  .  ,  .  IO9 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   CLOSING  YEARS        ....  .  I35 

CHAPTER  IX. 

WHY   WORTH    REMEMBERING 1 58 


CHAPTER    I. 

BIRTH    AND    EDUCATION. 
(1730-1S03.) 

AT  East  x\nstruther,  a  little  seaport  on  the  Frith  of 
Forth,  the  greatest  Scotsman  of  modern  times  was 
born.  We  do  not  say  the  greatest  genius,  or  the  highest 
literary  ornament  of  Scotland  ;  the  names  of  Burns, 
Scott,  and  Carlyle  would  forbid  such  an  assertion.  But 
we  say,  again,  the  greatest  man,  the  most  important  and 
influential  personality  that  has  sprung  up  in  Scotland  for 
at  least  two  hundred  years.  As  Sir  Arthur  Helps  has 
observed,  "  Greatness  is  not  general  dexterity  carried  to 
any  extent,  nor  proficiency  in  any  one  subject  of  human 
endeavour."  It  depends  on  mental  and  moral  calibre  as 
a  whole.  It  requires  a  combination  of  power  to  think 
and  power  to  do ;  power  to  impress  and  power  to  impel ; 
insight  and  energy,  loftiness  and  firmness,  force  and 
simplicity.  And  with  such  tests  before  our  minds,  we 
call  Thomas  Chalmers  great. 

2 


10  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

His  father,  John  Chalmers,  "dyer,  shipowner,  and 
general  merchant,"  was  a  citizen  of  the  old  God-fearing 
tyjDe.  He  was  characterised  by  moral  worth  and  religious 
steadfastness,  rather  than  by  any  intellectual  property. 
Mrs.  Chalmers  seems  to  have  been  likeminded,  good 
and  devout,  but  not  bright  as  the  mothers  of  eminent 
persons  so  often  are,  and  strangely  deficient  in  the 
sense  of  humour.  To  this  worthy  couple  were  born 
fourteen  children,  most  of  whom  grew  up  shrewd, 
kindly  people  of  their  class,  but  nothing  more.  The 
sixth,  however,  who  was  born  on  the  ist  March,  1780, 
was  of  a  larger  type  and  loftier  mould  —  a  "  son  of 
thunder." 

This  child,  Thomas  Chalmers,  was  not  tenderly 
nourished.  His  mother  had  to  prepare  for  the  next 
child,  and  the  next ;  and  so  the  little  boy  was  committed 
to  the  care  of  a  nurse  "  whose  cruelty  and  deceitfulness 
haunted  his  memory  through  life."  To  escape  from  the 
vixen,  he  went  of  his  own  accord  to  the  parish  school 
at  the  age  of  three  !  The  schoolmasters  had  no  idea  of 
the  treasure  of  mind  and  heart  which  lay  within  that 
little  child,  and  taught  him  carelessly.  He  grew  a 
strong,  brave,  merry  boy — not  dull  over  his  books,  but 
heedless.  Yet  from  his  earliest  years  he  declared  his 
purpose  to  become  "  a  minister;  "  and,  as  a  good  many 
boys  have  done,  he  played  at  preaching  to  his  com- 
panions.    The  text  which  he  chose  at  the  age  of  six — 


BIRTH  AND   EDUCATION.  II 

"  Let  brotherly  love  continue  " — showed  at  all  events  a 
kindly  nature.  It  is  not  alleged  that  in  this  juvenile 
preaching  there  was  any  serious  meaning  or  element ;  but 
in  those  days  of  old,  and,  indeed,  down  to  a  quite  recent 
period,  it  was  the  first  thought  of  a  clever  Scotch  boy  in 
the  class  of  burghers  and  farmers,  and  even  among  those 
of  lower  degree,  to  study  for  the  ministry,  or,  as  some 
say,  for  the  Church.  The  pulpit  has  been  and  is  so  great 
a  power  in  Scotland,  and  its  occupants  have  been  and 
are  so  much  regarded  and  discussed  among  all  ranks 
of  its  people,  that  the  ambition  of  youths  who  wish  to 
influence  their  generation  is  very  easily  turned  in  that 
direction  before  motives  more  worthy,  more  spiritual, 
have  begun  to  work. 

The  University  of  St.  Andrews  was  and  is  the 
recognised  seat  of  learning  and  institution  of  higher 
education  for  "  the  kingdom  of  Fife."  Indeed,  at  the 
period  to  which  we  refer,  it  was  little  more  in  its 
"  curriculum  of  Arts  "  than  a  school  for  big  boys  from 
the  neighbourhood.  Examination  for  entrance  there  was 
none.  Thomas  Chalmers  matriculated  before  he  was 
twelve  years  of  age ;  and,  as  he  had  shown  no  precocity 
at  the  parish  school  of  Anstruther,  and  little  diligence, 
his  entrance  on  university  classes  was  premature.  The 
late  Lord  Campbell,  who  was  a  student  of  St.  Andrews 
at  the  same  period,  is  said  to  have  been  even  younger 
than  Chalmers  at  his  matriculation. 


12  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

Very  naturally  such  boyish  students  wasted  time, 
and  trifled  over  their  books  from  sheer  heedlessness. 
Certain  it  is  that  Thomas  Chalmers,  ill  grounded  at 
the  parish  school,  and  much  fonder  of  a  roaring  game 
than  of  study,  gave  for  the  first  two  years  of  his  course 
at  St.  Andrews  no  indication  or  promise  of  intellectual 
ardour.  The  Latin  and  Greek  classics  had  no  charm 
for  his  mind,  and  this  not  merely  on  account  of  his 
extreme  youth,  but  also  through  the  defect  of  the  critical 
and  literary  faculty  in  his  mind.  He  never  was  or  could 
be  a  litierateur.  In  after  years  he  endeavoured  to 
improve  his  Latin,  New  Testament  .Greek,  and  Hebrew, 
as  part  of  his  equipment  for  a  Chair  of  Theology ;  but 
it  is  to  be  regretted  that  through  early  neglect  of  classical 
learning  and  criticism,  he  lost  a  discipline  that  might 
have  been  of  great  service  to  him  in  chastening  his  style, 
pruning  excrescences,  and  giving  finish  and  grace  to  his 
diction. 

In  the  third  winter,  however,  the  mind  of  the  student 
woke  as  from  sleep.  He  had  entered  the  class  of 
Mathematics,  and  what  seems  to  some  a  cold,  hard 
science  had  for  his  brain  a  charm  beyond  romance.  It 
suited  him  well  to  deal  with  definite  proportions  and 
magnitudes,  and  to  reason  on  necessary  properties,  driv- 
ing up  the  matter  to  ultimate  and  certain  conclusions. 
At  once  he  took  a  distinguished  place  among  his  fellows, 
r       and  became  for  his  years  a  remarkable  mathematician. 


BIRTH  AND   EDUCATION.  13- 

The  earlier  fancy  for  the  ministry  gave  place  in  his  minvl 
to  a  new  ambition  to  become  Professor  of  Mathematics 
in  one  of  the  national  Universities.  It  is  interesting  to 
read  in  connection  with  this  the  observations  of  Lock  - 
hart,  the  biographer  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  who  heard 
Chalmers  preach  in  Glasgow,  at  the  age  of  thirty-five, 
and  wrote  of  him  thus  in  "  Peter's  Letters  to  his  Kins-  -\- 
folk "  :  ''It  is  without  exception  the  most  marked 
mathematical  forehead  I  ever  met  with,  being  far  wider 
across  the  eyebrows  than  either  Mr.  Playfair's  or  Mr. 
(Sir  John)  Leslie's,  and  having  the  eyebrows  themselves 
lifted  up  at  their  exterior  ends,  quite  out  of  the  usual 
line — a  peculiarity  which  Spurzheim  had  remarked  in 
the  countenances  of  almost  all  the  great  mathematical 
or  calculating  geniuses — such,  for  example,  if  I  rightly 
remember,  as  Sir  Isaac  Newton  himself,  Kaestener,  Euler, 
and  many  others." 

The  intellectual  vigour  which  the  mathematics  had 
evoked  was  carried  forward  into  other  fields  of  study, 
and  Chalmers  became  one  of  the  conspicuous  students 
of  his  college.  The  strong  mind  once  wakened  was 
never  to  slumber  again.  And  one  of  its  first  wants 
was  a  competent  expression  of  itself  through  language. 
Till  now,  Chalmers  had  thought  as  a  child  and  talked  as 
a  cliild  ;  but  having  begun  to  think  soberly  and  strongly, 
he  needed  a  corresponding  utterance.  Accordingly,  we 
find  him  studying  English  and  the  formation  of  a  style ; 


-^ 


14  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

and  two  years  sufficed  to  make  a  youth  who,  though  a 
university  undergraduate,  could  scarcely  spell  or  write 
correctly,  master  of  a  diction  and  a  cadence  which, 
however  open  in  some  respects  to  criticism,  fitted  his 
emphatic  mind  and  well  expressed  both  his  feeling  and 
his  thought.  Specimens  of  his  later  college  composi- 
tions which  his  biographer  has  furnished  are  written  with 
singular  force  if  not  beauty  of  language,  and  are  interest- 
ing as  firstfruits  of  that  billowy  Chalmerian  style,  which 
is  as  marked  as  the  Johnsonian,  and  which  proved  capable 
of  marvellous  rhetorical  and  oratorical  effect.  It  did  so 
at  all  events  as  written  by  Chalmers  himself  and  by  the 
late  Henry  Melvill,  though  it  may  not  be  recommended 
for  general  imitation. 

At  the  end  of  his  four  winter  sessions  in  Arts,  after 
the  Scottish  fashion,  our  student,  though  still  holding  to 
the  mathematical  ambition,  resolved  to  take  the  course 
prescribed  to  candidates  for  the  holy  ministry — four 
winter  sessions  in  the  divinity  hall  Behold  him  actually 
enrolled  as  a  divinity  student  at  the  age  of  fifteen  ! 
Yet  even  then,  or  in  the  following  year,  we  read  of  his 
studying  with  ardour  such  a  work  as  Jonathan  Edwards' 
treatise  on  Free  Will.  No  clear  conception  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ  had  yet  reached  his  mind,  and  the 
religious  atmosphere  of  "  the  Hall "  at  St.  Andrews  was 
dry  and  cold.  So  Chalmers  occupied  himself  mainly 
with  Natural    Theology,  and  with    the  speculative  dis- 


BIRTH  AND   EDUCATION.  1 5 

cussion  of  such  arduous  themes  as  Free  Will,  Necessity, 
and  Predestination — surely  a  remarkable  proof  of  intel- 
lectual endowment  in  so  young  a  mind.  Little  time 
now  for  the  games  which  had  been  far  more  loved 
than  books — "golf,  football,  and  particularly  handball."  j^ 
No  time  for  light  reading — the  treatise  on  Free  Will 
threw  the  boy  into  "a  twelvemonth  of  Elysium."  Such 
are  his  own  words.  The  more  astonishing  this  when  we 
recollect  that  the  treatise  in  question  is  one  of  the  most 
dry  and  severe  arguments  that  has  ever  been  produced. 
Elysium,  indeed  !  It  would  more  readily  suggest  to 
some  the  gloom  of  Tartarus.  But  Chalmers  had  a 
sunny  spirit.  He  was  capable  of  deep  reverence,  but 
could  not  be  dire  or  stern ;  and  so  Jonathan  Edwards  did 
him  good  and  no  harm.  As  Dr.  Bayne  has  well  said, 
"  The  mind  of  Chalmers  was  of  that  radically  sound  and 
noble  order  which  responds  to  influences  of  hope  and 
love  rather  than  those  of  fear  and  restraint ;  he  had  an 
affinity  with  light." 

A  singular  testimony  is  borne  to  the  eloquence  of  this 
young  student  in  public  prayer !  It  was  then  the  practice 
for  the  theological  students  at  St.  Andrews  to  conduct 
in  rotation  daily  prayers,  morning  and  evening.  All  the 
members  of  the  university  were  expected  to  be  present, 
and  the  prayer  hall  was  thrown  open  to  the  public.  In 
his  first  session  Thomas  Chalmers  was  thus  required  to 
pray  before  all — not  to  read  prayers  from  a  book,  but  to 


1 6  THOMAS    CHALMERS. 

Utter  a  prayer  of  his  own.  The  prayer  which  he  thus 
poured  out  excited  such  admiration,  that  "  thereafter  the 
people  of  St.  Andrews  flocked  to  the  hall  when  they  knew 
that  Chalmers  was  to  pray."  Strange  boy  of  sixteen  ! 
More  strange  burghers  of  St.  Andrews,  listening  with 
eager  countenances  to  the  boy's  studied  prayer,  con- 
^sisting  chiefly  of  "  eloquent  descriptions  of  the  attri- 
butes and  works  of  God,"  as  though  it  were  a  sermon 
addressed  to  them,  rather  than  an  appeal  to  the  throne 
of  the  Heavenly  Grace  !  In  later  years,  Thomas 
Chalmers  learned  a  simpler  and  more  evangelical  devo- 
tion;  but  the  prayers  he  offered  publicly  in  church  or 
class-room  were  written,  and  were,  in  fact,  among  his 
most  characteristic  compositions. 

Debating  societies  there  were,  almost  as  a  matter  of 
course,  among  the  students,  and  in  one  of  them  Chal- 
mers seems  to  have  spoken  often,  and  shown  himself 
already  a  formidable  intellectual  combatant.  It  was  the 
Theological  Society,  in  which  there  were  two  other 
speakers  of  much  promise,  John  Campbell,  already  men- 
tioned, afterwards  Lord  Chancellor  of  England,  and 
John  Ley  den,  the  Oriental  linguist.  Leyden  was 
reckoned  the  best  speaker,  but  when  he  left  the  uni- 
versity and  tried  to  preach,  he  could  satisfy  neither  his 
audience  nor  himself,  and  abandoned  the  attempt ; 
whereas  Chalmers,  as  every  one  knows,  became  a  pulpit 
prince. 


BIRTH  AND   EDUCATION.  1 7 

His  course  accomplished,  our  student  appeared  before 
the  Presbytery  of  St.  Andrews  to  pass  the  usual  examina- 
tion, and  receive  "  license  to  preach  the  gospel."  He 
was  still  no  more  than  nineteen  years  of  age,  and  the 
Presbytery  demurred.  One  of  the  members,  however, 
urged  that  he  was  "  a  lad  o'  pregnant  pairts  ; "  the  plea 
was  admitted,  and  Thomas  Chalmers  became  an  autho- 
rised preacher  in  the  Church  of  Scotland. 

But  he  was  by  no  means  eager  to  preach.  As  already 
stated,  he  had  as  yet  no  hold  of  that  gospel  which  he 
lived  afterwards  to  proclaim  with  all  his  mind  and  heart. 
He  had  indeed  the  memory  of  evangelical  doctrine  as 
favoured  by  his  own  father  at  Anstruther,  who  loved  the 
works  of  Hervey  and  John  Newton,  and  earnestly  com- 
mended them  to  his  children  on  his  deathbed ;  but 
Thomas,  though  full  of  family  affection,  was  little  in- 
fluenced in  his  opinions  by  the  parental  advice.  He 
preferred  to  follow  the  prevailing  religious  tone  of  the 
University  and  Church  of  St.  Andrews,  which  was  non- 
evangelical,  or  as  the  Scottish  term  is,  "  Moderate."  Ac- 
cordingly he  regarded  his  "  license  "  by  the  Presbytery 
merely  as  a  step  of  progress  in  his  career.  There  was  as 
yet  no  burden  of  a  Divine  message  on  his  spirit,  which 
his  tongue  should  make  haste  to  utter. 

His  first  pulpit  appearances,  as  also  his  last,  were  made 
in  England.  He  preached  in  the  old  Scotch  church  at 
Wigan,  and  repeated  the  sermon  at  Liverpool  on   the 


IQ  THOMAS    CHALMERS.     - 

following  Sunday.  His  eldest  brother,  James  Chalmers, 
who  was  present  on  those  occasions,  made  the  following 
report  to  their  father :  "  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  form 
an  opinion  of  Thomas  as  yet ;  but  the  sermon  which  he 
gave  us  in  Liverpool,  which  was  the  same  as  we  had  at 
Wigan,  was  in  general  well  liked.  His  mode  of  delivery 
is  expressive,  his  language  beautiful,  and  his  arguments 
very  forcible  and  strong.  His  sermon  contained  a  due 
mixture  of  the  doctrinal  and  practical  parts  of  religion, 
but  I  think  it  inclined  rather  more  to  the  latter.  The 
subject  however  required  it.  It  is  the  opinion  of  those 
who  pretend  to  be  judges  that  he  will  shine  in  the  pulpit, 
but  as  yet  he  is  rather  awkward  in  his  appearance.  We, 
however,  are  at  some  pains  in  adjusting  his  dress,  manner, 
etc.,  but  he  does  not  seem  to  pay  any  great  regard  to  it 
himself  His  mathematical  studies  seem  to  occupy  more 
of  his  time  than  the  religious."  Grave  youths  they  were 
—  those  sons  of  Scotia — the  preacher,  nineteen  years  of 
age,  duly  mixing  "  the  doctrinal  and  practical  parts  of 
religion,  inclining  rather  to  the  latter;"  and  the  mature 
critic  of  twenty-seven,  suspending  his  opinion  of  his 
brother,  rather  hard  to  please,  and  not  at  all  so  sanguine 
as  "  those  who  pretend  to  be  judges  !  " 

James  did  not  hide  from  his  father  what  must  have 
been  the  unwelcome  fact,  that  Thomas  cared  more  for 
mathematics  than  religion.  Even  on  the  journey  to 
Liverpool,  and  during  his  stay  there,  the  young  preacher 


BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION.  1 9 

was  intent  on  mathematical  study,  perpetually  calculating 
and  demonstrating.  Such  was  at  that  period  the  passion 
of  his  intellect.  On  his  return  to  Scotland  he  actually 
avoided  preaching  engagements  because  they  interrupted 
his  studies ;  and  taking  up  his  residence  in  Edinburgh,  he 
attended  classes  in  the  university  of  that  city,  and  carried 
his  attainments  further  than  had  been  possible  during 
his  very  juvenile  course  at  St.  Andrews.  Besides  his 
favourite  field  of  Mathematics,  he  gave  himself  to  Che- 
mistry, Metaphysics,  and  Ethics. 

At  this  period  Chalmers  passed  through  that  sceptical 
conflict  of  mind  which  is  in  some  form,  and  at  some  time 
or  other,  almost  inevitable  to  such  intellects.  At  St. 
Andrews  he  had  been  an  admirer  of  Godwin,  who  made 
the  tenet  of  philosophical  Necessity  a  basis  of  universal 
doubt,  till  he  became  a  greater  admirer  of  Jonathan 
Edwards,  who  made  philosophical  Necessity  as  he  taught 
it,  a  foundation  of  faith.  But  now  at  Edinburgh  came 
a  new  peril,  in  the  shape  of  the  Systeme  de  la  Nature^  pub- 
lished by  the  Baron  d'Holbach  under  the  pseudonym  of 
M.  Mirabaud,  an  English  translation  of  which  was  issued 
in  the  year  1797.  Chalmers  was  greatly  shaken  in  such 
Christian  belief  as  he  had  by  the  showy  materialism  of 
this  work,  or  what  he  himself  afterwards  called  "its 
gorgeous  generalisations  on  nature,  and  truth,  and  the 
universe."  No  doubt  his  broad  and  healthy  mind  would 
ultimately  have  found  its  own  way  out  of  any  net  which 


20  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

the  French  Materialists  of  that  time  could  weave  ;  but 
happily  help  was  at  hand  in  Beattie's  essay  on  Truth,  a 
book  now  fallen  into  neglect,  and  in  the  prelections  of 
Dr.  Robison,  the  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  in 
Edinburgh,  also  forgotten  now,  but  in  his  day  an  efficient 
and  admirable  teacher.  Our  perplexed  student  was  much 
impressed  by  a  consideration  which  in  after  years  he  was 
wont  to  urge  with  great  emphasis  on  others,  viz.,  the 
adaptation  which  exists  between  the  order  of  nature  as 
observed  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  constitution  .  and 
anticipations  of  the  human  mind  on  the  other.  This  he 
could  not  beheve  to  be  a  result  of  the  fortuitous  grouping 
of  material  particles. 

All  through  his  life  Chalmers  dealt  with  the  evidences 
-both  of  Theism  and  of  Christianity,  and  probably  saved 
many  minds  from  being  unhinged  in  faith  by  Hume  and 
Voltaire ;  but,  with  the  exception  of  the  short  fight  with 
French  Materialism  in  his  youth,  to  w^hich  we  have  just 
referred,  he  seems  to  have  had  little  personal  experience 
of  religious  misgiving  and  doubt.  In  fact  his  mind  was 
too  reahstic  for  this.  It  could  not  play  with  vague 
suspense,  or  bear  empty  spaces  of  darkness,  but  took  a 
large  view  of  all  that  came  within  its  horizon,  then  threw 
itself  on  plain  certainty  when  that  could  be  had,  and 
when  it  could  not,  on  broad  probability,  and  was  satisfied. 
He  was  too  wise  to  say  that  "  Doubt  is  devil-born," 
but  it  was  not  a  thinsr  that  haunted  him.     He  had  no 


BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION.  21 

"spectres  of  the  mind."  He  was  not  at  all  a  man  to  sit 
brooding  over  the  "  Everlasting  No,"  or  gazing  into  the 
Sibyl  cave  of  Agnosticism.  Indeed  the  scepticism  of  his 
age  was  not  so  penetrating  as  that  of  ours,  or  the  "  inward 
strife  "  of  the  time  so  keen  and  searching. 

Take  note  here  of  the  fact  that  Thomas  Chalmers  had 
grown  up  to  manhood  without  vice.  His  constitution 
was  unhurt  by  excess,  his  conduct  was  free  from  reproach, 
and  the  mens  sana,  just  because  it  dwelt  m  corpore  sano^ 
was  all  the  more  fitted  and  likely  to  find  truth  and  shake 
off  error.  He  was  not  without  fault.  There  are  indica- 
tions that  he  was  of  a  proud,  impetuous  nature ;  but  he 
was  chaste  and  sober,  honest  and  true.  It  was  a  fine 
foundation  on  which  to  lay  an  illustrious  career. 

His  mind  was  now  in  strong  activity ;  not  so  much  occu- 
pied with  many  books  as  grappling  with  great  problems, 
and  making  its  way  in  a  sturdy  fashion  of  its  own  toward 
firm  conclusions.  The  most  singular  circumstance  is  that 
the  subject  which  took  least  hold  of  his  mind  was  that 
of  which  he  afterwards  became  such  a  distinguished 
expounder — Divinity.  The  ambition  which  still  burned 
within  him  was  to  become  a  university  professor,  not  a 
preacher  of  Christ.  Altogether  a  notable  masculine 
character;  a  thoughtful,  high-spirited  young  man,  but 
with  no  religious  fervour — 

Vigorous  in  health,  of  hopeful  spirits,  untouched 
By  worldly-mindedness  or  anxious  care. 


CHAPTER  11. 

PARISH  MINISTER    OF   KILMANY. 
(A.D.  1803— 1815.) 

IT  is  the  usage  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  to  license 
candidates  for  the  ministry  to  preach  as  soon  as 
they  have  fLdfiUed  the  requisite  course  of  study  in  Arts 
and  Divinity,  and  passed  their  "  trials  "  before  a  Presby- 
tery. They  are  then  on  public  probation  for  the  ministry 
of  the  Word,  but  are  not  irrevocably  committed  to  it  till 
ordained,  and  not  ordained  till  they  obtain  or  accept  a 
pastoral  charge. 

We  have  seen  Mr.  Chalmers  admitted  to  this  proximate 
and  probationary  position.  He  did  not  long  continue  in 
it.  He  left  his  studious  pursuits  in  Edinburgh  to  serve 
as  "  assistant,"  or  curate,  in  the  parish  of  Cavera,  near 
Hawick,  but  held  the  appointment  for  only  a  few  months. 
The  parish  of  Kilmany  needed  a  pastor ;  the  patronage 
was  vested  in  the  senatus  of  the  University  of  St. 
Andrews,  and  the  appointment  or  presentation  was  given 


PARISH  MINISTER   OF  KILMANY.  23 

to  Mr.  Chalmers.  The  truth  must  be  told  that  its  chief 
attraction  in  his  eyes  was  the  proximity  of  the  parish 
to  the  old  university  town,  as  permitting  him  to  engage 
in  academical  work.  And  in  some  small  degree  his 
youthful  ambition  was  already  gratified,  for  he  was  invited 
to  act  as  assistant  to  the  Professor  of  Mathematics,  and 
served  in  that  capacity  even  before  his  settlement  at 
Kilmany. 

On  the  1 2th  May,  1803,  Thomas  Chalmers  was 
ordained  with  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  Presby- 
tery of  Cupar.  The  charge  committed  to  him  was  a 
compact  rural  parish  in  Fifeshire,  occupied  by  a  purely 
agricultural  population.  The  young  minister  began  his 
work  with  a  very  inadequate  sense  of  its  serious  charac- 
ter. Intent  on  academical  distinction,  he  gave  to  parish 
duty  but  a  small  proportion  of  his  time.  His  good  old 
father  at  Anstruther  did  not  like  it,  and  we  find  the  son 
writing  thus  to  remove  the  paternal  misgivings :  ''  jMy 
chief  anxiety  is  to  reconcile  you  to  the  idea  of  not  con- 
fining my  whole  attention  to  my  ministerial  employment. 
The  fact  is  that  no  minister  finds  that  necessary.  I  am 
able  to  devote  much  time  and  attention  to  other  subjects, 
and,  after  all,  I  discharge  my  duties,  I  hope,  in  a  satis- 
factory manner.  Your  apprehensions  with  regard  to  the 
dissatisfaction  of  the  parishioners  are,  I  can  assure  you, 
quite  groundless." 

Mr.    Chalmers  was    not  invited    bv   the  Professor  of 


24  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

Mathematics  to  continue  as  assistant  daring  a  second 
winter.  It  is  certain  that  this  did  not  spring  from  any  dis- 
covery of  his  incompetency.  It  was  believed  to  originate 
in  jealousy  of  his  superior  influence  over  the  class.  He 
ielt  it  keenly ;  and  with  the  bold  and  rather  combative 
spirit  which  went  with  him  through  life  and  would  never 
"knuckle  down''  to  any  injustice,  he  opened  extra- 
academical  classes  in  St.  Andrews,  and  drew  the  students 
to  his  rooms.  It  was  a  new  and  strange  thing  in  the 
ancient  burgh,  and  if  we  consider  the  paucity  of 
students,  and  the  immense  influence  of  the  professors  in 
a  small  university  town — an  influence  which  was  hostile 
to  the  young  competitor — -the  venture  was  wonderfully 
successful.  The  range  of  Mr.  Chalmers'  teaching  was 
widened,  for  he  soon  added  to  Mathematics,  Chemistry 
and  Geology.  The  former  of  these  was  so  congenial  to 
his  mind  that  we  find  him  recurring  to  it  nearly  forty 
years  after  this,  and  giving  lectures  on  Chemistry  with 
experiments,  and,  as  he  frankly  tells  us,  with  "some 
failures  and  breakages."  The  latter  science  was  only  in 
its  infancy,  and  Chalmers  was  one  of  the  first  who  had 
prevision  of  its  value.  It  is  a  strong  instance  of  his 
sagacity  that,  so  early  as  the  year  1804,  he  feared  no 
injury  to  Divine  revelation  from  any  sure  conclusions  of 
Geology.  His  words  to  the  students  were  these  :  "  By 
referring  the  origin  of  the  globe  to  a  higher  antiquity 
than  is  assigned   to  it  by  the  writings  of  Moses,  it  has 


PARISH  MINISTER   OF  KILMANY.  25 

been  said  that  Geology  undermines  our  faith  in  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Bible,  and  in  all  the  animating  prospects 
of  immortality  which  it  unfolds.  This  is  a  false  alarm. 
The  writings  of  ]Moses  do  not  fix  the  antiquity  of  the 
globe.  If  they  fix  anything  at  all,  it  is  only  the  anti- 
quity of  the  species.  It  is  not  the  interest  of  Christianity 
to  repress  liberty  of  discussion." 

The  lectures  of  the  minister  of  Kilmany  attracted 
notice  in  all  the  neighbourhood,  and  made  him  a 
marked  man  in  Fifeshire ;  and  all  the  more  so  as  reports 
went  abroad  of  the  independent  and  even  disdainful 
spirit  which  he  had  shown  in  collision  with  the  professors. 
One  of  his  brothers  writes  of  him  at  this  period  with  an 
uneasy  feeling  :  "I  scarcely  think  he  has  taken  the  mode 
that  now  leads  to  preferment,  for  he  flatters  no  man." 
A  decidedly  uncomfortable  young  man  for  the  university 
mediocrities  at  St.  Andrews,  tricked  out  in  their  "little 
brief  authority,"  and  yet  in  his  heart  more  full  than  most 
men  are  of  reverence  for  real  greatness. 

Occupied  with  his  classes  in  St.  Andrews,  the  minister 
took  his  cure  of  souls  coolly  and  leisurely.  He  preached 
regularly  on  Sundays,  and  paid  the  visits  to  his  people 
which  were  customary,  but  his  heart  was  not  yet  given  to 
spiritual  work,  nor  did  he  know  in  his  own  experience 
the  power  of  the  truth,  or  the  cravings  of  the  inward 
religious  life.  His  very  first  publication  was  a  pamphlet 
vindicating  the  right  and  competency  of    the  Scottish 

3 


26  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

clergy  to  fill  university  Chairs  of  Mathemcttics  or 
Natural  Philosophy,  and  in  course  of  it  he  gave  ex- 
pression to  sentiments  which  at  a  later  period,  with  better 
knowledge  of  ministerial  responsibihty,  he  nobly  and 
publicly  retracted.  Still  they  are  reproduced  to  show 
what  was  the  attitude  of  his  mind  for  years  after  his 
ordination.  "  The  author  of  this  pamphlet  can  assert, 
from  what  to  him  is  the  highest  of  all  authority,  the 
authority  of  his  own  experience,  that,  after  the  satis- 
factory discharge  of  his  parish  duties,  a  minister  may 
enjoy  five  days  in  the  week  of  uninterrupted  leisure  for 
the  prosecution  of  any  science  in  which  his  taste  may 
dispose  him  to  engage.  .  .  .  There  is  almost  no 
consumption  of  intellectual  effort  in  the  peculiar  employ- 
ment of  a  minister.  The  great  doctrines  of  revelation,  j 
though  sublime,  are  simple.  They  require  no  labour  of  ' 
the  midnight  oil  to  understand  them ;  no  parade  of 
artificial  language  to  impress  them  upon  the  hearts  of 
the  people.  A  minister's  duty  is  the  duty  of  the  heart. 
It  is  his  to  impress  the  simple  and  home-bred  lessons  of  ' 
humanity  and  justice,  and  the  exercises  of  a  sober  and 
enlightened  piety."  Thus  wrote  the  accomplished,  but 
as  yet  spiritually  unenlightened,  Chalmers. 

And  v/hat  was  this  Moderatism  which  prevailed  so 
widely  at  that  period  in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and 
laid  its  cold  hand  on  the  minister  of  Kilmany  ?  It  was 
the  recoil   from   the   fervour   of  the  Covenanter,   as   in 


PARISH  MINISTER   OF  KILMANY.  2J 

England  high  and  dry  orthodoxy  and  chill  Socinianism 
showed  in  two  different  directions  the  recoil  from  the 
fervour  of  the  Puritan.  The  only  earnestness  it  ever 
showed  was  in  repressing  earnestness,  which  it  was  care- 
ful to  denounce  as  fanaticism.  It  seemed  to  ice  even  the 
"  milk  of  the  Word; "  and  the  only  honey  it  could  drop 
was  the  bland  praise  of  virtue  and  decorum.  It  favoured 
literary  taste,  but  in  religion  it  was  a  poor  frigid  thing, 
and  the  robust  piety  of  Scotland  never  accepted  or 
trusted  it.  The  significant  fact  is  that  those  districts 
which  were  most  completely  and  for  the  longest  period 
surrendered  to  the  influence  and  teaching  of  the 
Moderates,  are  notoriously  those  in  which  certain  forms 
of  immorality  are  most  widespread  and  deeply  rootea. 
So  little  can  fair  words  do  to  make  hearts  clean  ;  so  little 
can  the  praise  of  virtue  effect  when  Christ  and  the  grace 
of  God  are  concealed.  ~| 

The  first  speech  which  Mr.  Chalmers  made  in  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  was  on  no 
spiritual  or  exalted  theme,  but  on  the  Augmentation  of 
Ministerial  Stipends.  It  was  not  a  topic  favourable  to 
oratory,  but  he  invested  it  with  an  air  of  freshness  which 
stirred  his  audience  to  the  inquiry — Who  is  this  ?  One 
heard  and  marked  him  who,  though  in  the  opposite 
ecclesiastical  camp,  resolved  not  to  lose  sight  of  him. 
It  was  Dr.  Andrew  Thomson,  of  Edinburgh,  the 
vigorous  leader,  in  those  days,  of  the  Evangelical  party 


4- 


28  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

in  the  Church.  At  his  instance,  Chahiiers  began  to 
write  for  a  magazine  called  ''The  Christian  Instructor," 
Then  he  contributed  an  article  on  Christianity  to  the 
"  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia."  It  was  an  exposition  of  the 
evidences  of  Christianity  rather  than  of  its  doctrines ; 
but  at  all  events  it  indicated  that  the  author's  mind 
was  at  last  turning  from  his  mathematical  and  chemical 
pursuits  to  a  more  serious  consideration  of  the  faith 
which  he  w^as  pledged  and  ordained  to  teach.  He  was 
indeed  on  the  verge  of  a  great  inward  change. 

For  the  first  time  in  his  life  he  had  a  serious  illness, 
and  w'as  laid  aside  from  public  duty  for  many  months. 
In  retirement  he  reviewed  his  past  years,  and  was  dis- 
satisfied with  himself.  Then  he  read  books  that  searched 
his  spirit  closely — Pascal's  "  Pensees,"  and  Wilberforce's 
"Practical  View."  The  latter,  in  particular,  revealed  to 
him  the  grave  defect  of  his  religion  on  the  fundamental 
matter  of  acceptance  with  God.  He  saw  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  his  own  righteousness,  and  at  first  tried  to  mend 
it.  Most  earnestly  he  fought  with  himself,  endeavouring 
to  suppress  all  evil  inclination,  and  to  rise  into  a  purer 
and  more  perfect  life.  Yet  he  found  himself  foiled,  and 
his  soul  was  cast  down  within  him.  At  length,  as  God 
would  have  it,  w^ho  had  a  purpose  to  fulfil  concerning 
him  and  concerning  many  others  through  him,  Thomas 
Chalmers  caught  sight  of  the  freeness  and  simplicity  of 
the  gospel  of  grace,  embraced  it,  and  so  entered  on  a 


PARISH  MINISTER   OF  KILMANY,  2g 

peace  of  conscience  and  a  joy  of  faith  unknown  to  him 
till  then.  In  a  letter  to  his  youngest  brother,  within  ten 
years  later,  he  gives  the  following  account  of  this  critical 
part  of  his  life  :  ''  The  effect  of  a  very  long  confinement 
upon  myself  was  to  inspire  me  with  a  set  of  very 
strenuous  resolutions,  under  which  I  wrote  a  journal,  and 
made  many  a  laborious  effort  to  elevate  my  practice 
to  the  standard  of  the  Divine  requirements.  During 
this  course,  however,  I  got  little  satisfaction,  and  felt 
no  repose.  I  remember  that  somewhere  about  the 
year  iSii  I  had  Wilberforce's  'View'  put  into  my 
hands,  and,  as  I  got  on  in  reading  it,  felt  myself  on  the 
eve  of  a  great  revolution  in  all  my  opinions  about  Chris- 
tianity. I  am  now  most  thoroughly  of  opinion,  and  it  is 
an  opinion  founded  on  experience,  that  on  the  system 
of  Do  this  and  live,  no  peace,  and  even  no  true  and 
worthy  obedience,  can  ever  be  attained.  It  is — Believe 
in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved. 
When  this  beUef  enters  the  heart,  joy  and  confidence,^ 
enter  along  with  it.  The  righteousness  which  by  faith 
we  put  on,  secures  our  acceptance  with  God,  and  our 
interest  in  His  promises,  and  gives  us  a  part  in  those 
sanctifying  influences  by  which  we  are  enabled  to  do 
with  aid  from  on  .high  what  we  never  can  do  without 
it."  This  is  exactly  v/hat  we  find  expressed  in  his 
private  journal  when  the  new  light  which  had  visited 
his  spirit  was  fresh  : 


30  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

'''■yan.  7.  A  review  of  this  day  sends  home  to  my 
conviction  the  futility  of  resting  a  man's  hope  of  salva- 
tion on  mere  obedience  ;  that  there  is  no  confidence  but 
in  Christ;  that  the  best  security,  in  fact,  for  the  per- 
formance of  our  duties  is  that  faith  which  works  by  love, 
and  which,  under  the  blessing  of  God,  will  carry  us  to 
a  height  of  moral  excellence  that  a  mere  principle  of 
duty,  checked  and  disappointed  as  it  must  often  be  in  its 
efforts  after  an  unattainable  perfection,  could  never  have 
reached." 

Thus  the  minister  of  Kilmany  became  a  new  man. 
While  his  heart  was  comforted,  his  seriousness  of  purpose 
was  deepened,  and  the  inadequate  conception  of  minis- 
terial duty  which  he  had  formed  and  stoutly  maintained 
entirely  gave  way  before  the  strong  convictions  which 
now  possessed  his  souk  We  come  on  such  entries  in  his 
journal  as  the  following  : 

^'' Feb.  22.  Have  begun  to  read  Scott's  'Force  of 
Truth,'  and  I  pray  God  to  beget  in  me  a  lively  acquies- 
cence in  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus." 

^^  March  15.  Called  on  sick  people  in  the  village.  I 
am  a  good  deal  weaned  from  the  ardour  for  scientific 
pursuits ;  and  let  me  direct  my  undivided  attention  to 
theology." 

^^  April  23.     I  am  sensible  of  a  growing  acquiescence 
^  in  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  gospel  as  a  scheme  of 
reconciliation  for  sinners." 


PARISH  MINISTER   OF  KILMANY,  3 1 

^^  Aug.  4.  Let  me  give  my  whole  strength  to  the 
conversion  and  edification  of  my  people." 

"  Dec.  26.  Had  a  call  in  the  evening  from  A.  Pater- 
son,  who  had  been  reading  '  Baxter  on  Conversion,'  and 
is  much  impressed  by  it.  Delighted  to  hear  that  it  has 
also  been  read  with  impression  by  others.  A.  P.  finds 
that  he  cannot  obtain  a  clear  view  of  Christ.  O  God, 
may  I  grow  in  experience  and  capacity  for  the  manage- 
ment of  these  cases  !  It  is  altogether  a  new  field  to  me, 
but  I  hope  that  my  observations  will  give  stability  to  my 
views  and  principles  on  this  subject,  and  that  my  senses 
will  be  exercised  to  discern  between  good  and  evil." 

The  parish  soon  began  to  feel  the  change  which  had 
passed  upon  the  minister.  He  had  from  the  first  been 
esteemed  by  his  people  for  his  kindness,  and  admired  in 
a  half-bewildered  fashion  for  the  impetuous  eloquence 
with  which  he  urged  on  them  virtues  great  and  small, 
and  for  the  philippics  which,  falling  in  with  the  great 
scare  of  the  period,  he  had  pronounced  against  "  Bona- 
parte "  in  the  pulpit.  But  now  an  unction  appeared  in 
his  bearing  and  his  words  unknown  before.  He  could 
not  be  more  impetuous  than  before,  for  such  was  his 
temperament,  but  the  theme  of  his  ardent  speech  was 
not  so  much  the  praise  of  human  virtue,  or  the  denun- 
ciation of  fanaticisQi,  or  the  rousing  of  patriotic  resistance 
to  Bonaparte,  as  the  commendation  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
the  exposition  of  a  free  salvation  in  Him  from  all  sin, 


33  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

And  now,  for  the  first  time,  such  fruit  as  the  Christian 
ministry  ought  to  yield  began  to  appear.  Inquirers  after 
Christ  and  after  peace  with  God  consuked  the  minister 
as  no  one  had  consulted  him  before,  and  the  ver)- 
morahty  which  he  had  supposed  to  be  weakened  by 
evangeUcal  preaching  was  powerfully  promoted.  The 
testimony  to  this  which  Qhalmers  bore  in  his  parting 
address  to  the  parishioners  of  Kilmany  has  often  been 
quoted,  and  it  certainly  deserves  the  careful  considera- 
tion of  all  who  would  know  how  to  handle  religious  truth 
so  as  to  promote  righteousness  of  life./  "I  cannot  but 
record  the  effect  of  an  actual  though  undesigned  experiment 
which  I  prosecuted  for  upwards  of  twelve  years  among 
you.  For  the  greater  part  of  that  time  I  could  expatiate 
on  the  manners  of  dishonesty,  on  the  villainy  of  false- 
hood, on  the  despicable  arts  of  calumny ;  in  a  word, 
upon  all  those  deformities  of  character  which  awake  the 
natural  indignation  of  the  human  heart  against  the  pests 
and  the  disturbers  of  human  society.  It  never  occurred  to 
me  that  all  this  might  have  been  done,  and  yet  every  soul 
of  every  hearer  might  have  remained  in  full  alienation 
from  God,  .  .  .  But  the  interesting  fact  is,  that  during  the 
whole  of  that  period  in  which  I  made  no  attempt  against 
the  natural  enmity  of  the  mind  to  God,  I  certainly  did 
press  the  reformations  of  honour  and  truth  and  integrity 
among  my  people,  but  I  never  once  heard  of  any  such 
reformations  having  been  effected  amongst  them.     I  am 


PARISH  MINISTER   OF  KILMANY,  33 

not  sensible  that  all  the  vehemence  with  which  I  urged 
the  virtues  and  the  proprieties  of  social  life  had  the 
weight  of  a  feather  on  the  moral  habits  of  my  parishioners. 
And  it  was  not  till  I  got  impressed  by  the  utter  alienation 
\  /    of  the  heart  in  all  its  desires  and  affections  from  God  ;  it 

was  not  till  reconciliation  to  Him  became  the  distinct 

-f'  .       .  .  . 

'   and  the  prominent  object  of  my  ministerial  exertions ;  it 

was  not  till  the  free  offer  of  forgiveness  through  the  blood 
of  Christ  was  urged  upon  their  acceptance,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit  given  through  the  channel  of  Christ's  mediation  to 
all  who  ask  Him  was  set  before  them  as  the  unceasing 
object  of  their  dependence  and  their  prayers,  that  I  ever 
heard  of  any  of  those  subordinate  reformations  which  I 
aforetime  made  the  earnest  and  the  zealous,  but,  I  am 
afraid,  at  the  same  time,  the  ultimate  object  of  my  earlier 
ministrations.  You  have  taught  me  that  to  preach  Christ 
is  the  only  effective  way  of  preaching  morality  in  all 
its  branches ;  and  out  of  your  humble  cottages  have 
I  gathered  a  lesson  which  I  pray  God  that  I  may  be 
enabled  to  carry,  with  all  its  simplicity,  into  a  wider 
theatre.jj 

At  this  great  juncture  of  his  life  the  sinewy  strength  of 
character  which  was  in  Chalmers  served  him  well.  Be- 
coming an  evangelical  believer,  he  became  so  with  his 
whole  heart,  and  preached  accordingly.  But  he  did  not 
rush  into  any  extravagance.  When  he  discovered  the 
weakness  of  mere  moral  discourses  he  did  not  go  over  to 


34  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

Antinomianism,  or  for  a  moment  lose  sight  of  the  interests 
of  goodness  and  righteousness.  It  was  the  power  of  the 
gospel  to  produce  such  fruits  that  gave  confirmation  to 
the  evangelical  faith  in  a  mind  so  practical  as  his. 

He  now  followed  paths  of  religious  reading  which  he 
had  been  wont  to  avoid.  He  read  and  reUshed  such 
authors  as  Baxter  and  Doddridge ;  above  all,  he  read 
the  Bible  much  more  carefully.  And  in  his  private 
journal  he  poured  out  breathings  after  God,  and  longings 
for  more  faithful  testimony  to  Christ,  such  as  would 
formerly  have  seemed  to  him  to  be  morbid  or  fanatical,  ^.o-.. • 

'"'' April  2  2  (1S12).  I  am  hesitating  about  my  sermon 
for  Dundee.  My  frequent  cogitations  about  the  Dundee 
exhibition  argue,  I  am  afraid,  a  devotion  to  the  praise  of 
man.     Force  me  wholly  into  Thyself,  O  God  !  " 

'■^  Sunday^  May  t,-     Is   it  right  to  fatigue  myself  thus, 
or  soar  so  selfishly  and  ostentatiously  above  the  capaci- 
ties of  my  people  ?     O  God,  may  I  make  a  principle  of ' 
this  ;  and  preach  not  myself,  but  Christ  Jesus  my  Lord!" 

'"''May  6  (From  home).  Was  not  vigorous  for  devo- 
tion in  the  evening.  N.B. — When  there  is  no  time  or 
opportunity  in  inns,  I  can  set  myself  to  the  great 
business  of  intercourse  with  heaven  on  the  road." 

"  May  10  (at  Fettercairn).  It  is  most  difficult  to  main- 
tain a  savour  of  Christianity  with  the  people  I  am 
amongst.  Let  me  love  Thy  people,  O  God,  and  court 
their  society  ! " 


PARISH  MINISTER   OF  KILMANY,  35 

"  October  15.  Dined  with  the  Presbytery.  Was 
guilty  of  several  fits  of  impatience,  and  feel  my  weakness. 
O  God,  may  I  take  a  firm  hold  of  the  Saviour,  that  He 
may  strengthen  me  to  do  all  things  !  Give  me  the 
charity  that  endureth,  and  banish  from  my  heart  suspicion 
and  anger." 

The  minister  of  Kilmany  was  now  quite  out  of  har- 
mony with  most  of  the  neighbouring  ministers,  who  had 
passed  through  no  such  process  of  illumination  as  he  had 
experienced.  He  was  zealous  in  support  of  the  Bible 
/  Society,  and  they  were  quite  lukewarm.  He  was  full  of 
sympathy  and  admiration  for  the  INIissionary  Societies, 
and  they  regarded  them  with  a  good  deal  of  the  dislike 
and  contempt  which  Sydney  Smith  poured  out  in  the 
"Edinburgh  Review"  on  Carey  and  his  coadjutors,  as 
Z'  *'  a  nest  of  consecrated  cobblers."  The  moderate  ministers 
of  Fifeshire  and  Forfarshire  regarded  Chalmers  as  having 
gone  mad,  an  absurd  imputation  which  men  of  dry  and 
unsympathetic  minds  often  repeated  at  stages  of  his 
subsequent  career,  which  they  could  not  appreciate.  But 
the  people  began  to  hold  him  in  just  repute,  and  wher- 
ever he  now  preached,  flocked  to  hear  him.  In  the 
journal,  we  find  the  most  naive  avowals  of  the  pleasure 
experienced  in  this  publicity  and  popularity  with  honest 
struggles  against  an  overweening  desire  of  human 
applause ;  e.g.  : 

*'  y^an.  15  (18 1 3).     Extinguish  my  love  of  praise,  O 


36  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

God ;  and  now  that  my  name  is  afloat  on  the  pubhc,  let 
me  cultivate  an  indifference  to  human  applause." 

'•^yan.  26.  Called  on  Dr.  Brown,  who  gives  a  high 
testimony  to  my  article  on  Christianity.  O  God,  let  me 
not  be  seduced  by  the  love  of  praise  !" 

'^  March  11.  Mr.  Brewster  spent  the  evening,  and  I 
had  some  conversation  with  him  about  my  sermon.  I 
fear  that  this  sinful  love  of  distinction  still  hangs  about 
me.  O  my  God,  forgive  and  cleanse  !  Let  me  be  fear- 
fully vigilant  over  this  and  every  other  part  of  my 
conduct.  Let  me  make  a  point  of  bringing  forward 
nothing  in  conversation  for  the  purpose  of  signalising 
myself." 

"  Sunday^  July  1 1.  Preached  as  usual.  Miss  Collins 
expressed  her  satisfaction,  and  gave  me  the  testimony  of 
another  to  the  good  that  I  had  done.  I  have  to  record 
that  I  felt  sweetened  and  drawn  to  Miss  Collins  by  this. 
O  my  God,  search  me ;  root  out  all  that  is  sinful  in  the 
love  of  praise ! " 

The  Manse  of  Kilmany  was  for  many  years  a  bachelor's 
hall.  Mr.  Chalmers  had  one  of  his  sisters  to  preside 
over  his  small  household ;  but  she  married,  and  he  was 
quile  alone.  He  had  declared  to  his  friends  his  resolu- 
tion not  to  marry.  He  thought  that  his  stipend  would 
not  suffice  for  married  life,  and  that  by  remaining  a 
bachelor  he  might  "  live  easily,  indulge  in  a  good  many  ^ 
literary  expenses,  and  command  an   occasional  jaunt  to 


PARISH  MINISTER   OF  KILMANY.  37 

London."  Cut  such  vows  are  broken  even  by  the  most 
resolute  men;  and  Chalmers  married  in  181 2  Grace  Pratt, 
second  daughter  of  Captain  Pratt,  of  the  ist  Royals,  who 
was  on  a  visit  "-o  an  uncle  in  the  parish  of  Kihnany.  It 
was  a  union  of  real  affection,  and  greatly  conduced  to 
the  comfort  and  happiness  of  the  busy  preacher  and 
pastor.  He  writes  after  the  marriage  to  his  favourite 
sister,  describing  his  new  domestic  experience,  and  com- 
mending his  bride  in  the  following  characteristic  fashion  : 
"  It  gives  me  the  greatest  pleasure  to  inform  you  that  in 
my  new  connection  I  have  found  a  coadjutor  who  holds 
up  her  face  for  all  the  proprieties  of  a  clergyman's 
family."  But  though  he  called  her  a  connection  and  a 
coadjutor,  he  tenderly  loved  his  young  wife.  The  entry 
in  his  journal  is  beautiful : 

^^  Aug.  12.  Peace,  harmony,  and  affection  reign  in  my 
abode." 

In  Kilmany,  and  afterwards  in  Glasgow,  Chalmers  was 
much  given  to  hospitality,  and  his  journal  tells  of  a 
constant  stream  of  visitors.  One  of  the  most  remarkable 
of  those  who  came  under  his  roof  at  Kilmany  was  the 
English  Baptist,  whom  he  very  properly  characterises  as 
"  the  judicious  Andrew  Fuller,  able  champion  and 
expounder  of  our  common  Christianity."  The  visit  of 
Mr.  Fuller  to  Scotland  was  in  the  interest  of  the  Baptist 
Missions  which,  at  their  inception,  owed  so  much  to  his 
help  and  counsel.     Never  was  he  more  judicious  than  i» 


38  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

the  estimate  he  formed  of  the  minister  of  Kihiiany.  A 
few  weeks  after  his  return  to  his  home  at  Kettering,  he 
wrote :  "  I  saw  in  my  dear  friend  Chahiiers  a  mind 
susceptible  of  strong  impressions,  a  capacity  of  communi- 
cating them  to  others,  a  thirst  for  knowledge,  an  openness 
to  conviction,  and  a  zeal  for  the  promotion  of  the  kingdom 
of  Christ."  Mr.  Fuller,  however,  was  scarcely  so  judicious 
in  urging  his  new  friend  to  preach  extempore.  "  If  that 
man,"  said  he,  "  would  but  throw  away  his  papers  in  the 
pulpit,  he  might  be  King  of  Scotland."  Chalmers  made 
the  experiment,  but  after  a  few  weeks  abandoned  it  as  a 
comparative  failure.  Not  that  he  ever  was  at  a  loss  for 
language,  but  his  mind  was  too  full  and  vehement  to 
manage  a  discourse  and  keep  its  parts  in  due  proportion 
without  the  use  of  manuscript.  With  his  usual  naivete^ 
he  records  his  experience  of  extemporaneous  preaching. 

*'  Sunday^  Aug.  15.  Felt  discouraged,  and  did  not 
acquit  myself  to  my  satisfaction.  This  want  of  freedom 
prevented  even  a  complete  and  edifying  view  of  the  subject. 
Let  me  henceforth  carry  a  prepared  sermon  with  me. 
There  is  a  rapidity  and  impatience  in  all  my  processes. 
O  God,  give  me  to  be  more  calm  and  judicious  !" 

All  through  his  life,  Chalmers  wrote  out  speeches  with 
care,  and  committed  them  to  memory,  while  at  the  same 
time  he  had,  as  indeed  most  men  have  who  pursue  this 
course,  abundant  power  of  extemporisation  on  an  emer- 
gency.    Sometimes,  as  we  have  ourselves  heard  him,  he 


PARISH   MINISTER   OF  KILMANY,  39 

spoke  the  main  part  of  his  statement,  and  then  read  his 
peroration  wiLh  astonishing  force.  In  the  pulpit  he  gained 
all  his  great  triumphs  by  preaching  from  manuscript.  It 
may  not  be  the  best  method  for  preachers  in  general.  It  is 
often  tame  and  ineftective ;  but  in  the  hands  of  Chalmers, 
aided  by  the  glow  of  his  countenance,  the  sweep  of  his 
arm,  and  the  stirring  power  of  his  voice,  it  held  his 
/  audience  entranced.  "  Yon  wsis/el/  reading,"  observed  a 
good  old  woman  who  hated  the  reading  of  sermons,  but 
was  compelled  to  make  an  exception  in  favour  of 
Chalmers. 

There  is  indeed  a  popular  fallacy  about  extempore 
preaching.  In  the  sense  of  improvisation  it  is  a  thing 
almost  unknown  among  us.  Every  one  whom  men 
care  to  hear  prepares  his  sermon,  though  one  writes 
it  only  in  part,  another  writes  in  full ;  and,  again,  one 
takes  his  notes  to  the  pulpit,  another  his  complete 
manuscript,  a  third  nothing,  but  trusts  to  memory. 
Fuller  did  not  wish  Chalmers  to  improvise.  He 
did  not  do  so  himself.  The  substance  and  arrange- 
ment of  his  discourses  were  carefully  premeditated 
and  written,  though  he  preached  without  any  notes. 
He  did  not  write  elaborately  except  for  special  occa- 
sions. In  his  "  Thoughts  on  Preaching"  we  find 
this  counsel  given  to  a  young  minister  :  "  In  general  I 
do  not  think  a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  should  aim  at 
fine  composition  for  the  pulpit.      We  ought  to  use  sound 


^ 


40  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

speech  and  good  sense  ;  but  if  we  aspire  after  great 
elegance  of  expression,  or  become  very  exact  in  the 
formation  of  our  periods,  though  we  may  amuse  and 
please  the  ears  of  a  few,  we  shall  not  profit  the  many, 
and  consequently  shall  not  answer  the  great  end  of 
our  ministry.  .  .  .  Do  not  overload  your  memory 
with  words.  .  .  .  Never  carry  what  you  write  into  the 
pulpit." 

Probably  the  great  Baptist  preacher  of  the  present  day 
follows  the  lines  of  Andrew  Fuller,  premeditating  the 
matter  and  structure  of  the  sermon,  but  only  AM"iting 
partially,  always  studying  simplicity,  and  never  laying 
manuscript  on  the  desk.  One  who  is  so  great  a  master 
of  the  art  as  Mr.  Spurgeon  may  and  will  on  this  plan 
succeed  with  any  audience  ;  but  preachers  who  have  to 
address  many  educated  people,  and  who  have  not  the 
faculty  of  picking  out  the  best  words  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment,  will  generally  find  it  expedient,  if  not  necessary, 
to  write  out  with  care  the  discourses  they  mean  to  deliver. 
As  to  the  public  delivery,  it  may  be  from  the  manuscript 
unseen  but  remembered,  or  from  the  manuscript  laid  on 
the  desk.  Mr.  Jay  practised  the  former  manner  ;  so 
did  Dr.  Guthrie,  who  spoke  entirely  from  remem- 
bered manuscript,  though  with  charming  ease.  Such 
memorised  preaching  has  been  and  is  frequent  in 
Scotland,  and  also  abroad,  in  Roman  Catholic,  Lutheran, 
and   Reformed   pulpits.       It    has    great    advantage   for 


PARISH  MINISTER   OF  KILMANY.  4 1 

holding  the  eyes  and  ears  of  a  congregation,  and  in  the 
hands  of  a, skilful  speaker  who  docs  not  "talk  like  a 
book,"  it  has  almost  tlie  effect  of  impromptu  ;  but  it  is 
no  more  extemporaneous  than  was  the  "fell  reading" 
of  Jonathan  Edwards,  Chalmers,  Melvill,  or  Candlish, 
or  is  now  the  "  fell  reading  "  of  Caird  or  Liddon. 

There  is  not  much  more  to  tell  of  the  ministry  at 
Kilmany.  No  time  now  for  classes  at  St.  Andrews.  The 
minister  glowed  with  religious  earnestness,  and  watched 
for  souls  as  one  that  knew  he  had  to  give  an  account  to 
the  Lord  at  His  appearing.  He  preached  not  only  with 
more  fulness  of  truth,  but  with  more  care  than  ever — 
nobly  labouring  to  reduce  his  rolling  periods  so  as  to  be 
more  intelligible  and  useful  to  the  rustics.  He  stirred  up 
his  own  parish,  and  indeed  all  the  neighbourhood,  to 
contribute  to  the  Bible  Society,  and  to  the  Baptist  and 
Moravian  Missions  abroad,  as  the  missionary  impulse  had 
not  yet  fallen  on  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Yet  he  did 
not  abandon  his  early  interest  in  scientific  pursuits.  He 
followed  with  eagerness  the  discoveries  of  Cuvier,  and 
hailed  the  progress  of  Geology  with  a  largeness  of  hope 
rare  among  the  clergy  of  his  generation. 

Thomas  Chalmers  was  now  a  name  in  the  country.  It. 
had  come  to  be  widely  recognised  that  a  man  of  rare 
power  and  dcvotedness  was  rusticating  in  a  small  parish 
of  Fifeshire ;  and  it  was  inevitable  that  he  should  be 
invited  to  fill  a  wider  and  more  conspicuous  sphere, 

4 


CHAPTER     III. 

PARISH  MINISTER    AT    GLASGOW. 
(A.D.    181S-1823.) 

''  I  ^HE  Tron  parish  of  Glasgow  was  without  a  minister, 
-^  and  the  appointment  lay  in  the  gift  of  the  Town 
Council.  Owing  to  the  rivalry  of  ecclesiastical  parties  in 
Scotland  at  the  time,  the  selection  to  be  made  by  so  public 
a  body  for  so  pubUc  a  post  was  watched  with  keen  interest ; 
and  the  Town  Councillors  were  well  plied  with  letters  of 
advice.  The  result  was  the  choice  of  Mr.  Chalmers,  of 
Kilmany,  by  a  decisive  majority.  He  had  not  sought 
this  promotion  ;  but  when  it  was  offered  to  him  in  such 
a  manner,  he  could  not  hesitate  to  accept  it,  though  it 
was  with  a  sore  wrench  of  feeling  that  he  left  the  parish 
to  which  he  had  become,  especially  during  the  recent  years 
of  earnest  and  successful  ministry,  affectionately  attached, 
and  in  which  he  was  greatly  beloved.  It  was  in  the  year 
1 815,  and  Chalmers  was  in  early  prime,  just  thirty-five. 
Glasgow  was  then  a  city  of  100,000  people,  and  rapidly 


PARISH  MINISTER   AT   GLASGOW.  43 

growing  both  in  population  and  in  wealth.  It  was  to  be 
the  home  of  Chalmers  for  eiglit  well-spent  years,  and  for 
many  years  thereafter  to  retain  an  impress  of  his  energetic 
spirit. 

At  once  a  torrent  of  popularity  broke  upon  him.  The 
Scotch  are  a  sermon-loving  people,  and  one  who  could 
preach  as  Chalmers  did  was  sure  to  be  in  all  men's 
mouths.  The  dense  and  eager  congregations  which 
gathered  before  his  pulpit  gave  a  constant  stimulus  to  his 
powers ;  and,  preaching  as  he  now  did  under  a  weighty 
conviction  of  the  responsibilities  connected  with  the 
sacred  function,  the  minister  of  the  Tron  Church  sur- 
passed the  highest  expectations  of  those  who  had  called 
him  to  the  great  city  of  the  West.  Not  only  was  the 
crowd  with  him,  but  good  critics,  who  failed  not  to 
remark  on  his  uncouth  gestures  and  barbarous  Fifeshire 
accent,  ascribed  to  him  a  commanding  and  glorious 
eloquence.  We  have  already  cited  Mr.  Lockhart's  de- 
scription of  his  forehead  as  that  of  a  mathematician. 
In  his  sketch  he  enters  into  such  minute  details  as  enable 
us  to  set  before  our  eyes  Chalmers  in  the  pulpit  at  the  age 
of  thirty-five  :  of  middle  stature  and  solid  figure,  with 
pale  countenance,  square  cheeks,  strong,  crisp  dark  hair, 
pensive  lips,  and  yet  a  vigorous  mouth,  eyelids  half 
closed,  and  light-coloured,  dreamy  eyes,  that  gave  forth 
"  flame  and  fervour  "  when  he  warmed  into  enthusiasm  ; 
a  noble  head,  its  broad  brows  surmounted  by  "an  arch 


44  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

of  imagination,  while  over  this  again  there  is  a  grand 
apex  of  high  and  solemn  veneration  and  love,  such  as 
might  have  graced  the  bust  of  Plato."  As  to  the  sermon, 
Lockhart  says,  "At  first  there  is  nothing  to  make  one 
suspect  what  riches  are  in  store.  He  commences  in  a  low 
and  drawling  key,  which  has  not  even  the  merit  of  being 
solemn,  and  advances  from  sentence  to  sentence,  and 
paragraph  to  paragraph,  while  you  seek  in  vain  to  catch  a 
single  echo  that  gives  promise  of  that  which  is  to  come. 
But,  then,  with  what  tenfold  richness  does  this  dim 
preliminary  curtain  make  the  glories  of  his  eloquence  to 
shine  forth,  when  the  heated  spirit  at  length  shakes  from 
it  its  chill,  confining  fetters,  and  bursts  out  elate  and 
rejoicing  in  the  full  splendour  of  its  disimprisoned  wings  ! 
...  I  have  heard  many  men  deliver  sermons  far  better 
arranged  in  regard  to  argument,  and  have  heard  very 
many  deliver  sermons  far  more  uniform  in  elegance  both 
of  conception  and  style  ;  but,  most  unquestionably,  I 
have  never  heard,  either  in  England  or  Scotland,  or 
in  any  other  country,  any  preacher  whose  eloquence  is 
capable  of  producing  an  effect  so  strong  and  irresistible 
as  his." 

A  few  months  after  his  settlement  in  Glasgow,  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Chalmers  received  from  the  university  of  that 
city  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  It  is  the  usage 
of  the  Scottish  Universities  to  confer  this  degree  Jionoru 
causa '  on  such   as  are   deemed  by  the  Senatus   to  have 


PARISH  MIXISTER   AT   GLASGOW,  45 

shown  themselves  worthy.  The  professors  at  St. 
Andrews  probably  had  not  yet  quite  forgiven  the  young 
minister's  audacity  in  teaching  rival  classes  at  their  doors  ; 
and  so  they  missed  the  opportunity  of  enrolling  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  men  who  ever  passed  through  the 
university  among  their  graduates  in  Divinity.  Hence- 
forward we  speak  of  Dr.  Chalmers. 

The  principal  courses  of  sermons  preached  by  him 
in  Glasgow  were  published,  with  the  effect  of  greatly 
enhancing  and  extending  his  reputation.  The  first  series 
were  that  of  the  "  Astronomical  Discourses,"  which  ran 
through  nine  editions  in  one  year.  There  was  a  charm 
of  novelty  in  evangelical  eloquence  united  to  a  skilled 
acquaintance  with  one  of  the  loftiest  sciences ;  though 
the  objection  which  was  chiefly  combated  may  have 
occurred  to  few  of  his  hearers  or  readers  till  the 
preacher  suggested  it.  It  was  to  the  effect  that  the 
magnitude  of  the  universe  as  disclosed  through  the 
telescope  makes  the  gospel  improbable,  because  it  is  not 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  Son  of  God  should  inter- 
vene in  a  way  so  extraordinary  as  the  gospel  affirms  in 
behalf  of  the  inhabitants  of  our  planet,  a  most  incon- 
siderable item  in  the  innumerable  multitude  of  worlds 
that  form  His  visible  creation. 

The  "  Astronomical  Discourses "  are  now  little  read, 
but  when  they  were  preached  on  Thursday  mornings  in 
Glasgow,  busy  merchants  left  their  counting-houses,  and 


46  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

people  of  all  classes  sat  or  stood  breathless  under  the 
spell  of  the  orator ;  and  when  they  issued  from  the  press, 
men  Hke  Canning  and  Sir  James  Mackintosh  pronounced 
them  magnificent.  Undoubtedly  it  was  the  popularity 
of  these  discourses  that  first  obtained  for  their  author 
recognition  in  the  literary  world.  Dr.  Chalmers,  how- 
ever, agreed  in  his  old  age  with  John  Foster's  strictures 
upon  them.  His  biographer  says  that  "  he  had  quite  the 
feeling  towards  these  discourses  that  they  were  a  juvenile 
production  with  too  rich  an  exuberance  of  phraseology, 
to  which  the  pruning  knife  might  beneficially  have  been 
applied.  Even  among  his  sermons  he  did  not  think  that 
they  stood  first,  his  *  Commercial  Sermons '  being  always 
regarded  by  him  as  in  every  respect  superior  to  them." 
The  full  title  of  the  second  series  referred  to  is  "  Ser- 
mons on  the  Application  of  Christianity  to  the  Commercial 
and  Ordinary  Aftairs  of  Life."  The  public  did  not  show 
the  same  admiration  for  them  as  for  the  "  Astronomical 
Discourses."  The  theme  gave  less  scope  for  lofty  and 
eloquent  writing ;  but  we  venture  to  hold  that  the 
author's  estimate  was  correct,  and  that  the  second  was 
the  more  valuable  series  of  the  two. 

Dr.  Chalmers  in  Glasgow  was  more  than  a  preacher; 
he  was  a  parish  minister,  and  bent  himself  most 
seriously  to  the  duty  of  his  office.  Being  intent  on 
visiting  his  parishioners,  w^ho  numbered  about  12,000 
souls,   he   stoutly   objected  to   have  his  time    frittered 


PARISH  MINISTER   AT   GLASGOW,  47 

away  in  signing  papers  and  performing  routine  work. 
He  had  been  exempt  from  such  teasing  interruptions  at 
Kilmany,  and  indeed  he  never  got  quite  over  a  certain 
rusticity  and  love  of  o^ium  ciun  dignitate.  It  must  be 
acknowledged  that  the  demands  of  the  "  Glasgow  folk  " 
were  rather  exorbitant.  After  he  had  spent  three  months 
in  the  city,  Dr.  Chalmers  wrote  to  a  friend  :  "  This,  sir, 
is  a  wonderful  place ;  and  I  am  half  entertained  and  half 
provoked  by  some  of  the  peculiarities  of  its  people. 
The  peculiarity  which  bears  hardest  on  me  is  the  inces- 
sant demand  they  have  upon  all  occasions  for  the  per- 
sonal attendance  of  the  ministers.  They  must  have  four 
to  every  funeral,  or  they  do  not  think  that  it  has  been 
genteelly  gone  through.  They  must  have  one  or  more  to 
all  the  committees  of  all  the  societies.  They  must  fall 
in  at  every  procession.  They  must  attend  examinations 
innumerable,  and  eat  of  the  dinners  consequent  upon 
these  examinations.  They  have  a  niche  assigned  them 
in  almost  every  public  doing,  and  that  niche  must  be 
filled  up  by  them,  or  the  doing  loses  all  its  solemnity  in 
the  eyes  of  the  public.  There  seems  to  be  a  supersti- 
tious charm  in  the  very  sight  of  them,  and  such  is  the 
manifold  officiality  with  which  they  are  covered  that  they 
must  be  paraded  among  all  the  meetings  and  all  the 
institutions.  ...  I  am  gradually  separating  myself  from 
all  this  trash." 

This  impatience  of   unreasonable  demands  on   time 


48  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

and  personal  attention  came  not  of  indolence,  but,  as  we 
have  said,  of  an  intense  desire  to  fulfil  the  higher  duties 
of  a  parish  minister.  Dr.  Chalmers  was  warmly  attached 
to  the  old  parochial  system  of  Scotland,  and  had  nothing 
more  at  heart  than  to  see  it  worked  more  thoroughly  in 
town  as  well  as  country,  for  the  social  as  well  as  the 
spiritual  good  of  the  people.  Especially  was  he  anxious 
to  prove  its  capacity  for  relieving  the  wants  and  elevating 
the  condition  of  the  poor. 

Now  what  he  saw  in  Glasgow  was  an  utter  failure  to 
carry  out  the  parochial  system  for  such  ends.  The 
people  at  large  were  not  visited  either  by  ministers  or 
elders,  and  the  poor  were  relieved  in  a  most  unsatisfac- 
tory and  wasteful  manner  by  funds  assessed  on  the 
parishes,  and  dispensed  by  two  public  bodies,  the  General 
Session  and  the  Town  Hospital.  The  general  Poor  Law 
for  Scotland  had  then  no  existence,  but  Dr.  Chalmers 
dreaded  the  introduction  of  such  a  measure,  and  looked 
on  the  English  Poor  Law  as  an  evil  omen  for  his  country. 
Accordingly  he  set  himself  firmly  to  show  how  a  city 
parish  might  be  worked,  and  might  care  for  its  own  poor 
more  economically  and,  at  the  same  time,  with  far  better 
moral  efifent  on  the  population  than  could  ever  be  ob- 
tained on  the  dry  legal  system  of  assessment  and  stated 
allowance.  For  this  purpose  he  actually  dissociated 
himself  from  the  Tron  parish  and  took  charge  of  a  new 
parish  called  St.  John's.     The  Town  Council  assigned  it 


PARISH  MINISTER   AT   GLASGOW.  49 

to  him  with  car/c'  blanche  to  work  it  in  his  own  way,  and 
make  provision  for  all  the  poor  within  its  confines,  wnth 
exemption  from  the  general  assessment.  In  this  new 
sphere  Dr.  Chalmers  gathered  round  him  not  only  a 
zealous  eldership,  but  a  powerful  band  of  visitors,  whom 
he  "  inoculated  "  (a  favourite  phrase  of  his)  with  his  own 
ideas  and  enthusiasm.  Himself  working  at  their  head, 
and  superintending  their  activity  in  the  districts  which  he 
allotted  to  them,  he  explored  his  parish  with  a  mathema- 
tical precision  as  well  as  a  Christian  ardour.  Within  the 
parochial  limits  were  found  2,161  families,  of  whom  845 
had  no  seats  in  any  place  of  worship.  To  each  visitor 
were  assigned  about  50  families,  and  the  relief  of  the 
poor  was  dealt  with  as  follows :  "  We  constructed  a 
manual  or  brief  directory,  which  we  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  deacons.  It  laid  down  the  procedure  which 
should  be  observed  on  every  application  that  was  made 
for  relief.  It  was  our  perfect  determination  that  every 
applicant  of  ours  should  be  at  least  as  w'ell  off  as  he 
would  have  been  in  any  other  parish  of  Glasgow,  had  his 
circumstances  there  been  as  well  known ;  so  that,  sur- 
rounded though  we  were  by  hostile  and  vigilant  ob- 
servers, no  case  of  scandalous  allowance,  or  still  less  of 
scandalous  neglect,  was  ever  made  out  against  us.  The 
only  distinction  between  us  and  our  neighbours  lay  in 
this,  that  these  circumstances  were  by  us  most  thoroughly 
scrutinised,  and  that  with  the  view  of  being  thoroughly 


50  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

ascertained,  and  that  very  generally,  in  the  progress  of 
the  investigation,  we  came  in  sight  of  opportunities  or 
openings  for  some  one  or  other  of  those  preventive  expe- 
dients by  which  any  act  of  public  charity  was  made  all 
the  less  necessary,  or  very  often  superseded  altogether." 

Nothing  Utopian  in  this.  A  most  sober-minded, 
rational,  and  minutely  systematic  plan.  It  gave  far  more 
security  against  imposture  than  any  Charity  Organization 
Committee  can  furnish,  while  it  avoided  the  detective 
aspect,  and  spread  through  the  dwellings  of  the  poor  a 
warm  breath  of  Christian  helpfulness  and  love.  The 
results  were  admirable.  To  the  parishioners  of  St. 
John's  was  secured  a  preferential  right  to  the  sittings  in 
the  new  church,  and  they  so  filled  them  that  strangers 
had  difficulty  in  finding  a  vacant  corner.  The  whole 
community  felt  the  quickening  influence  of  the  sys- 
tematic, kindly  Christian  agency  by  which  it  was  now 
pervaded.  And  the  poor  were  well  relieved  at  a  cost 
far  below  that  which  was  imposed  on  the  surrounding 
parishes.  It  is  on  record  that  in  St.  John's,  under  Dr. 
Chalmers,  the  average  expense  of  poor  relief  was  ^£^0 
per  1,000  of  the  population,  while  in  the  other  parishes 
of  Glasgow  it  was  ;^{^2oo,  and  in  many  parishes  of  Eng- 
land it  was  at  that  period,  under  a  Poor  Law,  ^1,000 
per  1,000  of  the  population. 

It  is  surprising  that  with  such  proved  results  the 
example  was   not  followed  throughout  all  the  city ;  but 


PARISH  MINISTER   AT   GLASGOW.  51 

the  system  of  Chalmers  really  required  a  combination  of 
Christian  enthusiasm  and  persistence  which  probably  was 
not  to  be  found  in  sufUcient  strength  in  any  parish  but 
his  own.  It  lasted  in  St.  John's  for  eighteen  years, 
fourteen  of  them  after  Dr.  Chalmers  had  left  Glasgow. 
But  one  parish  could  not  permanently  withstand  the 
general  practice  of  a  community  which  so  rapidly  out- 
grew all  the  old  parochial  machinery ;  and  when  at  last 
the  whole  -relations  of  the  parish  ministers  to  the  popu- 
lation of  Scotland,  both  urban  and  rural,  was  altered 
by  the  events  of  the  year  1843,  there  was  a  complete 
breakdowai  of  the  arrangements  for  the  kindly  local  relief 
of  indigence ;  and  to  the  great  chagrin  of  Dr.  Chalmers, 
a  Poor  Law  for  Scotland  was  enacted  in  1845.  But 
nothing  could  change  his  opinion  on  the  general  ques- 
tion, and  he  has  left  it  to  us  in  these  words  :  "  It  remains, 
an  article  in  our  creed  that  for  the  relief  of  general  indi- 
gence the  charity  of  law  ought,  in  every  instance,  to  be 
displaced  to  make  room  for  the  charity  of  principle  and 
of  spontaneous  kindness." 

Every  one  sees  that  on  the  system  which  Chalmers  so 
stoutly  maintained,  avaricious  and  cold-hearted  persons, 
well  able  to  contribute  to  the  relief  of  distress,  might 
and  would  evade  the  call  to  contribute,  or  give  far 
less  than  their  due  proportion  ;  and  that  a  Poor  Law 
places  the  burden  more  evenly  on  all  the  citizens — 
the  generous  and  the  selfish,  the  just  and  the  unjust. 


53  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  becomes  more  apparent,  year 
after  year,  that  the  administration  of  a  Poor  Law,  invol- 
ving the  admission  of  a  statutory  right  to  public  relief, 
conduces  to  improvidence  and  the  weakening  of  family 
affection  among  those  who  are  in  humble  circumstances, 
tends  to  keep  down  wages  unduly  in  rural  districts, 
discourages  the  honourable  pride  of  independence,  and 
engenders  the  pauperism  which  it  relieves.  English 
clergymen  of  experience  at  recent  Church  Congresses, 
and  intelligent  philanthropists  on  every  side,  more  and 
more  keenly  deplore  those  degrading  influences  of  Poor 
Law  administration  of  which  Chalmers  warned  the 
country  half  a  century  ago. 

It  was  while  he  was  minister  of  the  Tron  Church  of 
Glasgow  that  Dr.  Chalmers  first  found  himself  famous 
in  London.  He  had  paid  a  visit  of  curiosity  to  the 
metropolis  at  an  earlier  period  ;  but  in  the  year  1817  he 
proceeded  thither,  on  the  invitation  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society,  to  preach  the  annual  sermon  in  behalf 
of  that  institution.  In  those  days  there  was  no  express 
train  in  which  to  rush  up  from  Scotland  to  London  in  a 
"-( —  night;  and  Dr.  Chalmers,  with  Mrs.  Chalmers  and  "  Mr. 
Smith,  his  publisher,"  spent  a  month  on  the  leisurely 
journey.  On  the  way,  he  made  a  point  of  seeing  and 
conversing  with  James  Montgomery,  at  Sheffield,  and 
Robert  Hall,  at  Leicester.  And  it  may  here  be  remarked 
that  Chalmers,  while  reserved  as  to  his  inward  thought 


PARISH  MINISTER   AT   GLASGOW.  53 

and  life,  was  of  a  healthy,  sociable  nature.  He  received 
many  visitors.  No  doubt  he  often  complained  of  inter- 
ruption by  "calls"  made  upon  him,  audit  was  inevit- 
able that  commonplace  people  would  plague  him  with 
the  kindest  intentions.  But  he  had  to  take  the  visitors 
as  they  came,  and  a  shrewd  man  can  extract  something 
even  out  of  commonplace  people.  Men  of  intellectual 
and  moral  eminence  passing  through  Glasgow  made  a 
point  of  calUng  upon  him.  For  example,  in  the  course 
of  a  few  days  in  the  summer  of  1818,  his  journal  notes 
the  visits  of  Professor  Pictet  of  Geneva,  Rev.  Legh 
Richmond,  Mr.  Cunningham  of  Lainshaw  (the  writer 
on  Prophecy),  Lord  and  Lady  Elgin,  and  Dr.  Thomas 
Brown  (the  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the 
University  of  Edinburgh).  The  social  and  friendly 
nature  of  Chalmers  was  also  shown  by  him  when  from 
home.  Busy  man  though  he  was,  he  knew  how  to 
unbend  the  bow ;  and,  all  through  his  life,-  found  time 
for  seasons  of  relaxation  and  travel,  and  for  visiting  the 
homes  of  his  friends. 

The  missionary  sermon  was  delivered  in  Surrey  Chapel, 
and  it  is  related  that  Rowland  Hill,  the  minister,  stood 
during  the  whole  time — an  hour  and  a  half — at  the  foot 
-^  of  the  pulpit,  "gazing  on  the  preacher  with  great  earnest- 
ness, and  whenever  any  sentiment  was  uttered  which  met 
his  approval,  signifying  his  assent  by  a  gentle  nod  of  the 
head  and  an  expressive  smile. 


54  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

Staying  for  a  fortnight  in  London  at  this  time,  and 
preaching  in  the  small  Scots  churches  in  London  Wall 
and  Swallow  Street — both  now  extinct — Dr.  Chalmers 
drew  to  his  auditory  some  of  the  most  eminent  men  of 
the  day — as  Canning,  Huskinson,  Wilberforce,  and  Sir 
James  Mackintosh.  Canning,  though  at  first  quite  dis- 
appointed, as  the  hard  Fifeshire  accent  broke  upon  his 
ear,  was  soon  arrested,  and  at  the  end  of  the  service 
remarked,  "  The  tartan  beats  us  all."  A  good  phrase  ; 
though,  of  course,  Chalmers,  as  a  Lowlander,  had  no 
more  to  do  with  "  the  tartan  "  than  any  Englishman  in 
the  crowd. 

After  the  London  manner,  attentions  and  invitations 
were  heaped  on  the  now  famous  man  ;  but  he  fled  from 
the  "  insufferable  urgency,"  and  made  his  way  to  the 
Isle  of  Wight,  thence  to  Bath,  where  he  made  acquaint- 
ance with  Mrs.  Hannah  More  and  John  Foster — the 
latter  of  whom  he  greatly  admired.  Thence  to  Bristol, 
and  through  Wales  to  Liverpool.  In  a  letter  to  one  of 
his  sisters  he  writes :  "  We  spent  three  days  in  Liverpool. 
I  was  greatly  delighted  with  the  Gladstones,  to  whom  I 
got  an  introduction."  So  the  good  man  returned,  unspoilt 
by  all  the  tide  of  distinction  which  had  everywhere 
attended  him,  back  to  the  parish  again — to  its  urgencies 
and  agencies,  the  oppressive  crowd  in  public,  and  the 
steady  pastoral  visitation  in  the  dense  alleys  and  squaUd 
closes  of  Glasgow. 


PARISH  MINISTER   AT   GLASGOW,  55 

In  St.  John's  parish,  the  assistant-minister,  or  curate, 
for  a  time,  was  the  afterwards  celebrated  Edward  Irving. 
Chalmers  and  he  harmonised  well,  each  having  a  genuine 
admiration  of  the  other,  though  there  was  a  practical 
shrewdness  in  Chalmers  which  Irving  could  not  appre- 
ciate ;  and  an  "  over  soul "  and  high  pitch  of  mind  in 
Irving  whicli  Chalmers  thought  uncanny.  Mr.  Irving 
was  not  yet  generally  popular.  "  His  preaching,"  said 
Dr.  Chalmers,  "is  like  ItaUan  music,  appreciated  only 
by  connoisseurs." 

The  assistant  went  to  London,  where  for  a  few  years 
he  made  a  great  sensation.  His  successor  was  Mr. 
Smyth,  afterwards  Dr.  Smyth,  and  minister,  first  of  the 
parish,  and  then  of  the  Free  Church  of  St.  John's — afar 
less  striking  man  than  Irving,  but  safer,  and  more  suited 
to  the  post.  From  his  pen  we  have  a  pleasing  account 
of  Dr.  Chalmers  in  his  domestic  life  and  in  his  study 
at  this  period  of  his  career:  "When  we  entered  the 
dining-room  for  tea,  my  eye  lighted  on  a  table  literally 
covered  with  letters,  the  accumulation  of  a  few  days. 
(This  even  before  the  introduction  of  the  penny  post.) 
It  was  Dr.  Chalmers'  practice  at  this  time  to  reply  to  his 
correspondents,  whenever  it  was  practicable  for  him  to  do 
so,  in  course  of  post.  In  his  answers  he  generally  con- 
fined himself  to  the  matter  immediately  in  hand,  waiving 
prefcices,  and  getting  at  once  in  medias  res.  In  this  way, 
although,  perhaps,  no  man  in   Britain  had  a  more  ex- 


56  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

tensive  and  multifarious  correspondence,  he  succeeded 
in  never  falling  behind  with  his  answers.  .  .  .  Dr. 
Chalmers  devoted  at  least  five  hours  each  day  to  study 
— I  use  the  word  in  its  proper  sense ;  he  was  thus  occu- 
pied partly  before  breakfast,  and  thereafter  till  one  or  two 
o'clock  in  reading  and  composition  ....  It  being 
midsummer  when  I  first  resided  under  his  roof,  he  gene- 
rally relaxed  for  two  hours,  taking  some  favourite  walk, 
and  inviting  me  to  accompany  him.  The  Botanic  Garden 
was  a  much-loved  resort.  He  luxuriated  among  the 
plants  and  flowers  of  the  season,  and  delighted  to  examine 
minutely  the  structure  and  beauties  of  some  humble 
production  that  would  have  escaped  the  notice  of  a  less 
practised  eye.  He  said  to  me  one  day,  '  I  love  to  dwell 
on  the  properties  of  one  flower  at  a  time,  and  fix  my 
mind  on  it  exclusively.  This  is  a  peculiarity  of  my  con- 
stitution ;  I  must  have  concentration  of  thought  on  any 
given  thing,  and  not  be  diverted  from  it.'  He  dined 
generally  at  half-past  four  o'clock ;  and  it  was  Dr.  Chal- 
mers' practice  to  sally  forth  (as  he  playfully  expressed  it) 
after  dinner,  from  his  house  in  Windsor  Place  to  St. 
John's  parish,  spending  at  least  two  hours,  several  nights 
in  the  week,  among  his  parishioners.  The  more  advanced 
hours  of  the  evening  were  spent  in  a  less  onerous  way 
— letter -writing,  or  the  literature  of  the  day,  or  the 
society  of  friends.  ...  In  no  respect  did  Dr.  Chalmers 
present  a  more  attractive  example  of  all  that  is  kind  and 


PARISH  MINISTER   AT   GLASGOW.  57 

lovely  than  in  the  bosom  of  his  own  family.  His  chil- 
dren were  all  young,  but  they  were  to  him  objects  of 
daily  and  most  affectionate  interest ;  he  was  playful 
among  them  even  to  occasional  romping.  Wiien  absent 
for  a  few  weeks,  he  printed  little  letters  for  their  accept- 
ance. Mrs.  Chalmers  was  possessed  of  talents  decidedly 
superior,  of  large  and  varied  information,  of  warm- 
hearted affection,  and  of  enlightened  and  decided  piety. 
Dr.  Chalmers  had  unlimited  confidence  in  her  discre- 
tion." It  completes  our  respect  and  heightens  our 
admiration  to  know  that  the  great  orator  was  such  a 
good  "  house  father,"  and  one  who  loved  to  have  chil- 
dren hanging  on  him,  and  helped  to  make  a  sweet, 
domestic  interior — 

**  Embosomed  happiness  and  placid  love." 

The  ministry  of  Dr.  Chalmers  in  Glasgow,  so  far  as  its 
fruits  appeared,  was  universally  regarded  as  a  grand 
success ;  yet  he  broke  it  off  somewhat  suddenly.  He 
had  shown  what  could  be  done  for  the  city  poor,  but 
did  not  like  to  have  the  system  which  he  inaugurated 
spoken  of  as  feasible  only  in  his  own  hands,  and  thought 
it  due  to  his  system  to  stand  aside  and  let  it  be  carried 
on  by  other  men.  He  had  preached,  as  we  have  seen, 
with  immense  acceptance,  and  published  several  volumes 
of  sermons ;  but  the  strain  on  his  mind  was  very  severe, 
as  he  never  spoke  in  the  pulpit  or  on  the  platform  with- 

5 


58  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

out  strenuous  preparation.  Then  he  grew  more  and 
more  dissatisfied  with  incessant  and,  as  he  deemed, 
unnecessary  inroads  made  upon  his  time — an  experience 
which,  as  we  have  indicated,  had  been  unknown  in  the 
quiet  incumbency  in  Fifeshire.  And  at  the  hack  of  his 
mind  there  still  lay  the  old  desire  to  be  a  University 
Professor.  It  was  not  now  an  ambition  for  academical 
distinction.  He  was  conscious  of  a  love  like  that  of 
Socrates  for  youthful  minds,  and  a  faculty  for  kindling 
and  guiding  them.  Yet  it  shocked  the  preconceptions 
^  of  a  good  many  devout  persons,  when  the  great  Evan- 
gelical preacher  surrendered  his  pulpit  to  accept  the 
chair  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  his  own  University  of  St. 
Andrews. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

PROFESSOR  AT  ST.  ANDREWS. 
(1823— 1828.) 

DR.  CHALMERS  regarded  the  study  o^.  Moral 
Philosophy  as  the  proj^er  gateway  to  that  of 
Theology ;  and  though  the  class  now  committed  to  him 
did  not  fall  within  the  "  theological  curriculum,"  yet  the 
fact  that  all  theological  students  had  to  pass  through 
it  before  they  could  enter  the  Divinity  Kail,  gave  it  in 
his  eyes  an  important  bearing  on  the  type  of  religious 
teaching  which  was  to  emanate  from  the  University  of 
SL  Andrews.  To  influence  in  a  right  direction  a  con- 
siderable proportion  of  the  future  ministers  of  his  native 
land  was,  in  his  judgment,  a  more  important  function 
than  to  fill  one  pulpit  or  supcriniend  one  parish  any- 
wiiere.  He  expressed  this  view  of  the  matter  in  an 
earnest  letter  of  explanation  which  he  wrote  to  INIr.  Wil- 
berforce  at  the  time,  and  also  in  a  speech  delivered  at 
the  farewell  dinner  given  to  him  in  Glasgow,  and  pre- 


6o  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

sided  over  by  the  Lord  Provost.  In  the  latter  he 
spoke  highly  of  the  work  of  the  Christian  minister,  but 
placed  it  second  to  that  of  one  who  should  "  deal  in 
embryo  with  the  Christian  ministers  of  the  next  gene- 
ration, and  on  whose  labours  in  the  academic  chair  is 
suspended  the  future  welfare  of  many  parishes."  This 
language  applied  properly  to  Theological  Professors,  but 
Chalmers  had  resolved  to  make  his  class  of  Moral  Philo- 
sophy tend  in  the  same  direction,  and  so  he  proceeded : 
*'  I  shall  regard  it  as  above  all  Greek  and  all  Roman 
fame,  if  the  elementary  lessons  I  am  called  to  deliver 
shall  be  found  to  harmonise  with  the  lessons  of  a  sound 
and  scriptural  theology;  if  from  the  first  principles  of 
that  earlier  stage  which  I  am  called  to  occupy  in  the 
course  of  education,  a  few  young  and  aspiring  disciples 
shall  go  on  to  perfection  in  the  school  of  Christ." 

He  began  his  prelections  with  very  little  WTitten  pre- 
paration, but  his  mind  was  full  of  his  subject;  and  the 
great  reputation  which  now  attended  him  filled  his  class- 
room not  only  with  students,  but  with  amateurs  anxious 
to  hear  a  man  so  famous.  It  had  been  the  custom  in 
Scotland  to  teach  Metaphysics  in  the  class  of  Moral 
Philosophy;  but  Chalmers  confined  himself  to  the 
science  of  Ethics.  He  dwelt  on  the  essential  and  un- 
alterable quality  of  moral  distinctions,  and  discussed 
theories  of  virtue.  Then  he  concluded  his  course  with  a 
series  of  lectures  on  Natural  Theology.     His  own  way 


PROFESSOR   AT   ST.   ANDREWS.  6l 

of  putting  it  is — that  he  dealt  with  (i)  "the  moralities 
which  reciprocate  between  man  and  man  on  earth ;  and 
(2)  the  moralities  which  connect  earth  and  heaven." 
The  latter  was  the  division  which  called  forth  the  best 
powers  of  the  Professor,  being  most  congenial  to  his 
mind.  He  spoke  of  it  as  "  the  outgoings  of  Moral 
Philosophy  to  the  Christian  Theology."  In  later  years, 
the  lectures  on  Natural  Theology  prepared  at  St.  An- 
drews were  remodelled  to  form  the  introduction  to 
Dr.  Chalmers'  prelections  as  a  Professor  of  Divinity,  and 
it  may  be  admitted  that  this  is  their  proper  position. 

It  would  be  an  exaggeration  of  fact  to  rank  Chalmers 
among  the  magnates  of  philosophy.  •  He  might  have 
been  a  leading  Physicist  if  he  had  not  found  a  higher 
vocation ;  but  Metaphysics  could  not  detain  his  mind ; 
and  in  Ethics,  though  a  useful,  forcible  teacher,  he  has 
founded  no  school,  and  marked  no  epoch.  In  every 
department,  however,  he  was  a  real  thinker,  not  a 
repeater  of  the  thoughts  of  others.  As  John  Stuart 
Mill  has  said  of  him  in  "  Political  Economy,"  "  he  has 
always  the  merit  of  studying  phenomena  at  first  hand, 
and  expressing  them  in  a  language  of  his  own  which 
often  uncovers  aspects  of  the  truth  that  the  received 
phraseologies  only  tend  to  hide." 

It  should  be  explained  that  the  Professor  of  Moral 
Philosophy  at  St.  Andrews  was  expected  not  only  to 
teach  Metaphysics,  along  with  Ethics,  but  also  to  deliver 


62  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

a  few  lectures  on  Political  Economy.  Dr.  Chalmers  was 
not  content  with  this  arrangement,  for  his  observations 
and  reflections  on  the  state  of  city  populations  had 
given  him  a  profound  conviction  of  the  reach  and 
importance  of  this  science.  Accordingly  he  opened  a 
separate  class  for  Political  Economy,  using  Smith's 
"  Wealth  of  Nations  "  as  a  text-book.  These  prelections 
were  afterwards  re-delivered  in  Edinburgh,  and  then 
thrown  into  the  form  of  a  Treatise  on  Political  Economy, 
which  was  published  in  the  year  1832.  His  concurrence 
in  the  main  with  the  views  of  Malthus  regarding  the 
overgrowth  of  population  and  its  inevitable  penalties 
has  been  sharply  criticised.  What  we  find  to  be  most 
worthy  of  note  in  Chalmers  as  a  Political  Economist  is 
the  foresight  with  which  he  drew  out  into  prominence 
what  all  men  at  last  perceive  to  be  a  cardinal  question— 
the  condition  of  the  people — accompanying  this  with  strong 
pleadings  for  education  and  character  as  essential  to 
economic  comfort  and  welfare.  His  treatise,  indeed,  is 
mainly  an  effort  to  prove  the  limited  range  of  all  merely 
politico-economic  expedients  apart  from  the  spread  of 
intelligence  and  righteous  principles  in  the  community. 
It  is  remarkable  to  come  on  a  passage  like  the  following 
from  the  pen  of  one  brought  up,  as  Chalmers  had  been, 
in  the  ways  of  old  George  the  Third  Toryism :  **  We 
cannot  bid  adieu  to  our  argument  without  making  the 
strenuous  avowal  that   all  our  wishes  and  all   our  par- 


PROFESSOR   AT   ST.   ANDREWS.  63 

tialities  are  on  the  side  of  the  common  people.  We 
should  rejoice  in  a  larger  secondary  and  a  smaller 
disposable  population  ;  or,  which  is  tantamount  to  this, 
in  higher  wages  to  the  labourers,  and  lower  rents  to  the 
landlords."  But  then  he  faithfully  warns  the  "common 
people*'  that  they  cannot  rise  but  "  by  the  growth  of 
prudence  and  principle  among  themselves."  Elevation 
can  only  be  won  for  them  "  by  the  insensible  growth  of 
their  own  virtue." 

Chalmers  exerted  a  sort  of  fascination  over  his  students. 
Armed  with  a  quiet  dignity  which  no  one  might  invade, 
he  was  at  the  same  time  so  accessible,  and  so  considerate, 
and  withal  so  free  of  all  starch  and  affectation,  that  he 
drew  their  love  as  well  as  their  admiration  ;  and  on  many 
of  them  he  made  an  impression  that  shaped  their  cha- 
racter and  moulded  their  life-long  career.  Dr.  Lindsay 
Alexander  may  be  cited  as  a  notable  instance,  and  his 
testimony,  publicly  rendered  after  the  lapse  of  half  a 
century,  is  in  these  words  :  "  He  brought  the  minds  of 
the  students  into  intimate  contact  with  his  own,  com- 
municated to  them  impulses  from  his  own  inherent 
energy,  and  succeeded  in  lodging  in  their  minds  great 
truths  and  principles  with  a  force  which  incorporated 
them  with  their  entire  inner  nature,  never  again  to  be 
eradicated." 

One  direction  in  which  he  exerted  a  very  marked 
influence  was  quite  new  to  students  at  St.  Andrews.    Ever 


1 


64  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

since  the  "great  change"  which  had  passed  on  him  at 
Kihiiany,  Dr.  Chahners  had  been  warm  and  steadfast  in 
his  support  of  such  missionary  enterprises  as  were  then 
going  forward.  We  have  noticed  his  interest  in  the 
Moravian,  Baptist,  and  London  Missionary  Societies. 
He  felt  as  cordially  toward  the  Church  (of  England) 
Missionary  Society,  and  longed  to  see  his  own  Church 
take  her  due  share  in  such  honourable  work.  Soon  after 
his  settlement  in  St.  Andrews,  he  found  a  small  associa- 
tion already  formed  there  to  promote  Foreign  Missions, 
and,  on  invitation,  at  once  accepted  the  Presidency. 
Extraordinary  interest  thereupon  attached  to  the  monthly 
meetings,  at  which  Professor  Chalmers  was  wont  to 
convey  missionary  intelligence  to  the  members  and  their 
friends.  His  custom  was  to  take  the  various  Missionary. 
Societies  in  rotation,  giving  an  evening  to  each,  and 
sketching  its  leading  characteristics  as  well  as  describing 
its  work.  On  such  occasions  the  Town  Hall  was  crowded 
with  auditors,  and  it  must  have  seemed  to  the  citizens, 
long  accustomed  to  the  indifference  of  Moderatism  to 
the  missionary  cause,  that  a  new  epoch  indeed  had  come. 
The  students  were  conscious  of  a  warmer  religious  atmo- 
sphere, and  some  caught  the  flame  of  a  Christian  self- 
devotion.  It  is  a  fact  ever  to  be  remembered  that  it  was 
Chalmers  who  in  this  way  fostered  the  missionary  zeal  of 
Alexander  Duff,  then  a  student  in  St.  Andrews,  afterwards 
the  distinguished  missionary  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 


PROFESSOR   AT   ST.   ANDREWS.  65 

and  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  in  Calcutta,  and  one  of 
the  '•  chiefest "  modern  apostles  to  the  Gentiles.  Other 
men  of  honoured  name  in  missionary  annals,  as  Nesbitt, 
Mackay,  and  Ewart,  also  went  to  India  mainly  from  the 
impulse  which  they  had  received  under  the  instruction 
and  appeals  of  their  beloved  Professor,  the  President  of 
the  little  Missionary  Association  at  St.  Andrews. 

At  the  same  time  the  strong  bent  towards  Home 
Missions  which  had  characterised  Dr.  Chalmers  at 
Glasgow  did  not  desert  him  in  the  quiet  University  town. 
His  zeal  in  that  direction  was  no  mere  fancy  that  might 
be  dropped,  but  rested  on  a  profound  conviction  of  his 
brain  and  of  his  heart,  from  which  he  never  swerved. 
Indeed,  Chalmers  was  the  very  opposite  of  a  fickle  and 
impulsive  man.  He  was  one  of  the  most  consistent  and 
persistent  of  mankind.  He  thought  slowly  and  exhaus- 
tively before  he  expressed  or  committed  himself;  but 
once  his  mind  was  formed,  and  he  felt  it  his  duty  to 
yield  himself  to  the  promotion  of  any  public  cause  or 
object,  he  did  so  in  a  grand  whole-souled  manner,  and 
never  wavered.  At  St.  Andrews  there  were  no  "  masses" 
to  be  dealt  with  such  as  even  at  that  period  tasked  all  the 
energies  of  philanthropy  in  Glasgow ;  but  he  who  loves  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor  will  nowhere  be  at  a  loss 
for  a  sphere  of  usefulness.  Dr.  Chalmers  found  that 
sphere  in  the  district  of  St.  Andrews  near  his  own  house. 
Proceeding,  as  his  manner  was,  on  a  definite  plan,  he 


66  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

mapped  out  the  district,  visited  all  the  poor  families,  and 
conducted  a  Sunday  evening  class  at  his  residence.  The 
result  of  this  admirable  example  was  that  many  of  the 
students  began  to  teach  Sunday  classes  in  the  poorer 
parts  of  the  town,  and  the  whole  community  was  per- 
vaded by  a  religious  activity  unknown  to  St.  Andrews 
for  several  generations. 

Among  the  many  applications  for  sermons  which  the 
wide  reputation  of  Dr.  Chalmers  now  brought  upon  him 
came  one  from  Stockport,  to  take  the  anniversary  service 
for  the  benefit  of  the  large  United  Sunday-school  in  that 
Lancashire  town ;  and  just  because  it  was  to  aid  and 
encourage  a  Sunday-school  the  request  was  assented  to. 
The  school  in  question  then  was,  and  still  is,  one  of  the 
sights  of  Stockport.  It  is  held  in  a  large  building  of 
ungainly  appearance,  not  unlike  a  factory,  and  attended 
by  about  two  thousand  children,  and  a  proportionate  force 
of  volunteer  teachers,  without  regard  to  religious  denomi- 
nation. On  the  occasion  of  the  anniversary,  which  is 
depended  on  to  produce  a  large  collection  for  the  yearly 
expenses  of  the  work,  it  was,  and  still  is,  the  custom  to 
have  an  unusually  attractive  musical  service,  along  with  a 
sermon  by  some  eminent  preacher.  It  is  very  amusing  to 
read  of  the  horror  with  which  Dr.  Chalmers,  on  going  to 
fulfil  his  appointment,  regarded  what  he  called  "the 
quackish  advertisement,"  and  found  himself  committed 
to  a  sort  of  partnership  with  an  orchestra.     "  They  have 


PROFESSOR   AT   ST.   ANDREWS.  C7 

got  the  sermon  into  the  newspaper,  and  on  reading  the 
advertisement  I  was  well-nigh  overset  by  the  style  of  it. 
They  are  going  to  have  a  grand  musical  concert  along 
with  the  sermon,  to  which  the  best  amateurs  and  per- 
formers of  the  neighbourhood  are  to  lend  their  services. 
This  is  all  put  down  in  their  gaudy  manifesto.  ...  I 
asked  Mr.  Grant  if  I  might  take  the  paper  with  me  for 
the  amusement  of  my  Scottish  friends.  He  asked  if  I 
disliked  music.  I  said  that  I  liked  music,  but  disliked 
all  charlatanerie.  Thus  far  I  went."  On  the  Sunday  the 
Doctor  gave  the  managers  his  view  of  the  matter  in  terms 
more  plain  than  pleasant,  but  he  fulfilled  his  promise  to 
them  and  secured  the  big  collection.  "  Will  you  believe 
it?  An  orchestra  of  at  least  a  hundred  people,  three 
rows  of  female  singers,  many  professional  male  singers, 
a  number  of  amateurs  ;  and  I  now  offer  you  a  list  of  the 
instruments,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain  them : 
One  pair  bass  drums,  two  trumpets,  bassoon,  organ, 
serpents,  violins  without  number,  violoncellos,  bass  viols, 
flutes,  hautboys.  I  stopped  in  the  minister's  room  till  it 
was  over.  Went  to  the  pulpit,  prayed,  preached,  retired 
during  the  time  of  the  collection,  and  again  prayed. 
Before  I  left  my  private  room  they  fell  to  again  with  most 
tremendous  fury."  Of  course  the  absence  of  all  instru- 
mental accompaniment,  and  of  all  anthem  singing,  to 
which  Dr.  Chalmers  had  been  accustomed  in  Scottish 
services,  gave  emphasis  to  his  amazement  at  the  style  of 
the  Stockport  anniversary. 


68  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

Throughout  the  five  years  spent  at  St.  Andrews,  the 
journal  from  which  we  have  already  made  a  few  quotations 
was  regularly  kept.  It  is  touching  to  see  how  the  good 
man  took  himself  to  task  for  every  little  outbreak  of  his 
native  impetuosity,  and  marked  the  rise  and  fall  of 
devotional  feeling  in  his  breast.  He  mentions  his  course 
of  reading,  which  was  at  this  period  chosen  principally 
from  among  such  evangelical  WTiters  as  Owen,  Howe, 
Romaine,  and  Leighton.  He  speaks  of  taking  up 
Ricardo,  and  comparing  his  views  with  those  of  Mal- 
thus,  noting  his  object  in  these  terms  :  "  To  deliver  myself 
in  a  complete  way  of  my  Political  Economy,  and  then  to 
give  all  my  strength  to  Theology."  On  a  day  when  he 
suffered  from  a  slight  illness,  he  mentions  one  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott's  tales,  and  it  is  the  only  allusion  to  them 
that  appears,  "  In  my  incapacity  for  exertion  I  have 
begun  to  read  the  '  Antiquary.'  "  It  is  curious  that  Chal- 
mers makes  no  further  reference  to  the  brilliant  series 
of  the  Waverley  Novels,  or  to  the  poems  of  Scott, 
though  these  were  at  the  time  in  all  men's  mouths.  He 
makes  an  allusion  or  two  to  Robert  Burns — no  more. 
Cowper  he  admired,  and  quoted  frequently  ;  naturally  so, 
for  was  not  "  the  Bard  of  Olney  "  the  poet  laureate  of  the 
evangelical  revival  ?  For  Coleridge's  writings  he  had  no 
great  relish,  though  he  valued  his  personal  acquaintance 
with  that  eminent  man.  The  bewilderment  with  which 
he  regarded  Mr.  Coleridge's  transcendental  talk  is  thus 


PROFESSOR   AT   ST.   ANDREWS,  69 

expressed  in  a  letter  from  London,  written  in  the  year 
1827  :  "  His  conversation,  which  flowed  on  in  a  mighty 
unremitting  strain,  is  most  astonishing,  but,  I  must  con- 
fess, to  me  still  unintelligible.  I  caught  occasional 
glimpses  of  what  he  would  be  at;  but  mainly  he  was  far 
out  of  all  sight  and  all  sympathy.  .  .  .  You  know  that 
Irving  sits  at  his  feet,  and  drinks  in  the  inspiration  of 
every  syllable  that  falls  from  him.  There  is  a  secret,  and 
to  me  as  yet  unintelligible,  communion  of  spirit  between 
them  on  the  ground  of  a  certain  German  mysticism  and 
transcendental  lake-poetry  which  I  am  not  yet  up  to." 
Wordsworth,  the  great  prophet  of  the  'Make  poetry," 
was,  iDrobably,  too  vague  for  Chalmers,  though  his  exqui- 
site descriptions  of  nature  ought  to  have  recommended 
him  to  one  so  enthusiastic  in  the  enjoyment  of  scenery; 
for  Chalmers  had  an  eye  for  landscape  that  might  have 
belonged  to  a  poet  or  painter,  and  might  often  be  found 
mounting  a  tower,  climbing  a  hill,  or  riding  outside  a 
coach  for  the  sake  of  some  "glorious  prospect." 

The  great  poets  of  an  earlier  time  he  seems  to  have 
read  over  with  care  in  his  later  years.  After  a  complete 
perusal  of  Milton,  he  remarked  that  he  did  not  wonder 
at  the  poet's  preference  of  "  Paradise  Regained"  to  "Para- 
dise Lost."  The  power  and  witchery  of  Shakespeare  he 
felt  as  all  intellectual  men  do,  and  observed,  "  I  dare  say 
Shakespeare  was  the  greatest  man  that  ever  lived — ■ 
greater,   perhaps,   even   than   Sir  Isaac  Newton."     His 


70  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

favourite  play  was  the  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  and 
we  concur  with  Dr.  Bayne  in  thinking  that  such  a  prefer- 
ence, avowed  as  it  was  near  the  close  of  his  life,  is  a 
beautiful  and  characteristic  trait.  "  After  a  life  of  con- 
tinual effort,  of  perpetual  contact  with  men  and  things, 
after  the  world  had  done  its  worst  upon  him,  both  in 
applause  and  in  censure,  he  still  walked  in  the  aerial 
gaiety,  the  many-tinted  summer-like  beauty,  the  genial 
though  keen  sagacity  of  the  Midsummer  Night's  Dream. 
It  is  a  very  remarkable  circumstance,  telling  of  a  gende- 
ness  of  nature,  a  kind,  gleesome  humour,  an  exuberant, 
unstramed  force  and  freshness  of  intellect,  surely  rare 
among  theologians." 

Dr.  Chalmers,  however,  was  not  at  any  time  of  his  life 
a  great  adept  in  literature  or  an  accomplished  critic. 
We  do  not  look  to  him  for  finished  estimates  of  authors, 
either  in  prose  or  verse.  His  mind  worked  deliberately 
and  povv'eifiilly  on  the  themes  and  affairs  with  which  it 
grappled ;  but  he  did  not  read  very  widely,  or  take  much 
note  of  the  bdles  let t res. 

In  the  journal  we  fall  on  curious  phrases.  Chalmers 
always  expressed  himself  with  verve  ;  sometimes  with  an 
em|jhasis  almost  laughable;  sometimes,  too,  on  the  con- 
fidential page  or  in  private  letters,  with  quaint  Scottish 
terms  of  speech  which  he  avoided  in  his  published  works. 
So  we  meet  with  such  expressions  as  the  following : 
**  I  was  in  a  bustled  and  arduous  state."     "  I  was  a  little 


PROFESSOR   AT   ST.   ANDREWS,  7I 

colded."  "  I  behoved  me  to  make  calls."  "  I  feel 
colded  to  St.  Andrews  by  the  High  Church  spirit  which 
pervades  it."  "  ]\Irs.  Campbell,  of  Shawfield,  was  there, 
who  appears  a  remarkably  wholesome  and  well-disposed 
person."  "My  exercises  sadly  interrupted  this  day  by 
the  constant  visitations  of  indignancy  on  the  reflection 
of  college  matters."  "The  minister  I  saw  smiling  and 
smirkling."  "  Mr.  Buchanan  spoke  with  an  utterance 
which  only  played  buff  uix)nthem."  "Much  weighted 
with  public  difficulties."  "  Thronged  with  college  and 
university  meetings."  "  Do  thou  evangelise  the  rising 
talents  of  our  Church  !  "  Those  who  recollect  private 
conversation  with  Dr.  Chalmers  can  recall  many  similar 
phrases ;  if  not  elegant,  yet  graphic  and  full  of  energy. 
A  story  is  told  of  his  ascending  a  high  hill  with  a 
few  friends  —  a  feat  he  always  loved  to  accomplish. 
When  they  reached  the  summit,  the  Doctor  sat  down, 
and  looking  round  with  a  benign  expression,  said,  ''Let 
us  abandon  ourselves  to  miscellaneous  emotions  1 "  One 
must  imagine  the  Fifeshire  pronunciation  "miscellaw- 
neous."  When  on  a  visit  to  Ireland  he  expressed  a  desire 
to  hear  the  Irish  language  spoken.  An  old  woman  was 
brought  forward,  bribed  with  a  sixpence,  to  talk  in  the 
Celtic  tongue,  and  the  village  doctor  was  ready  to  interpret. 
When  she  had  spoken  a  short  sentence,  Chalmers  eagerly 
inquired  of  the  interpreter  what  it  meant.  "She  says 
that  she  wants  another  sixpence."    With  quick  repugnance 


72  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

Chalmers  answered,  "It  is  too  bad;  you  must  really 
learn  to  set  limits  to  your  unbridled  appetency  ! " 

No  one  expected  Dr.  Chalmers  to  remain  permanently 
in  the  Chair  of  Moral  Philosophy  at  St.  Andrews.  He 
liked  the  old  city  by  the  sea ;  and  even  the  east  wind 
from  the  German  Ocean  suited  him.  One  has  described 
him  as  walking  cheerily  along  the  seashore  in  half  a 
breeze  of  biting  wind,  staff  in  hand.  " '  Fine  bracing 
east  wind  this  ! '  he  ejaculated,  with  that  husky,  clanging 
voice  of  his,  like  that  of  a  sea  bird."  But  the  sphere 
was  too  contracted  for  a  man  of  his  capacity.  Moreover, 
he  was  not  happy  with  his  colleagues ;  and  the  divergence 
between  them  was  brought  out  before  the  University 
Commission  of  the  period  in  a  manner  which  Dr. 
Chalmers  felt  to  be  painful.  Accordingly,  he  gave  some 
consideration  to  a  proposal  which  was  made  to  him 
in  the  year  1827,  that  he  should  fill  a  Chair  of  Moral 
Philosophy  in  the  new  University  of  London. 

To  satisfy  his  own  mind  about  this  matter,  Chalmers 
made  a  journey,  or  rather  a  voyage,  to  the  Metropolis. 
He  had  also  another  object  in  view — to  officiate  at  the 
opening  of  a  new  church,  which  was  built  in  Regent 
Square  for  the  ministry  of  Edward  Irving.  It  was  to  be 
called  the  National  Scotch  Church.  The  folloAving  notes 
of  the  services  on  this  occasion  are  found  in  the  journal 
letter  which  he  wrote  to  his  family  : 

^^  Friday. — Mr.    Irving    conducted     the    preliminary 


PROFESSOR   AT   ST.   ANDREWS.  73 

service  in  the  National  Church.  There  was  a  prodigious 
want  of  tact  in  the  length  of  his  prayer — forty  minutes — 
and  altogether  it  was  an  hour  and  a  half  from  the  com- 
mencement of  the  service  ere  I  began.  .  .  .  The  dinner 
took  place  at  five  o'clock,  and  many  speeches.  Mr. 
Irving  certainly  errs  in  the  outrunning  of  sympathy." 

^^  Sunday^  i^ih  May  (1827). — The  crowd  gathered  and 
grew,  and  the  church  was  filled  to  an  overflow.  Lord 
Bexley  still  in  the  place  where  he  was  on  Friday ;  Mr. 
(Sir  Robert)  Peel  was  beside  him  then.  Lord  Farnham, 
Lord  Mandeville,  Mr.  Coleridge,  and  many  other  notables 
whom  I  cannot  recollect  among  my  hearers.  Coleridge 
I  saw  in  the  vestry  both  before  and  after  service  ;  he  was 
very  complimentary.  Walked  towards  Swallow  Street, 
where  I  was  to  preach  in  the  afternoon." 

Some  of  the  notes  on  the  following  days  are  interesting  : 
''^Monday. — Breakfasted  with  Strachan  (afterwards 
Bishop  of  Toronto).  Duncan  there,  and  Mr.  (Sir)  James 
Stephen,  a  very  literary  man,  and  high  in  office.  Dr.  S., 
Mr.  D,,  and  I  went  forth  after  breakfast ;  in  the  first 
place,  to  the  courts  at  Westminster  Hall,  where  I  was 
much  interested  by  the  aspect  of  the  various  judges,  who 
looked  very  picturesque ;  then  towards  Covent  Garden, 
where  Cobbett  and  Hunt  were  to  address  the  people  on 
politics.  ...  I  was  under  the  necessity  of  going  to  dine 
at  Mr.  Frere's,  at  two.  He  is  the  person  to  whom  Mr. 
Irving  dedicates  his  book  on  *  Prophecy.' " 

6 


t 


74  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

"  Tuesday. — Hired  a  chaise  for  the  day,  and  made  fif- 
teen calls.  Crossed  the  Thames  at  Waterloo  Bridge,  where 
I  called  on  Lady  Radstock ;  they  were  full  of  kindness. 
Visited  the  Bishop  of  Lichfield  and  Coventry  (formerly 
Gloucester),  where  I  dined.     All  was  cordiality." 

At  the  House  of  Commons  he  mentions  conversations 
with  Mr.  (Lord)  Macaulay,  who  was  not  then  in  Parlia- 
ment, with  "Mr.  Peel"  and  "Mr.  Brougham." 

On  this  visit  to  London,  Dr.  Chalmers  evidently  felt 
serious  misgivings  about  Irving's  career. 

^^  Satitrda}\  i()th. — Mr.  Gordon  informed  me  that 
yesternight  Mr.  Irving  preached  on  his  '  Prophecies  '  at 
Hackney  Chapel  for  two  hours  and  a  half,  and  though 
wtxy  powerful,  yet  the  people  were  dropping  away,  when 
he  (Mr.  L)  addressed  them  on  the  subject  of  their  leaving 
him.  I  really  fear  that  his  '  Prophecies '  and  the  ex- 
cessive length  and  weariness  of  his  services  may  unship 
him  altogether,  and  I  mean  to  write  him  seriously  upon 
this  subject." 

The  biographer  of  Edward  Irving  has  cast  some  re- 
proach on  Chalmers  for  not  having  shielded  his  former 
assistant  when  arraigned  before  the  Church  Courts  on  a 
charge  of  erroneous  teaching  regarding  the  human  nature 
of  Christ  j  and  we  confess  that  we  should  have  been 
better  pleased  if  he  had  uttered  a  generous  plea  in  behalf 
of  his  friend,  even  though  he  could  not  have  saved  him 
from  the  sentence  which  impended.     But  it  is  only  fair 


PROFESSOR   AT   ST.   ANDREWS,  75 

to  remember  that  Chalmers  never  could  or  would  ad- 
vance a  plea  which  he  could  not  found  on  an  argu- 
ment that  satisfied  his  understanding,  and  he  did  not 
know  what  to  say  in  defence  of  Irving.  To  his  practical 
mind,  with  its  hard  matter-of-factness  within  "  the  fiery- 
ring  of  its  intensity,"  the  high-flown  speculations  of  Mr. 
Irving  were  peculiarly  unwelcome ;  and  that  singular 
man's  preference  for  "  ideas  looming  through  the  mist," 
and  his  ecstasy  over  the  recovered  gifts  of  tongues  and 
healing,  seemed  indications  of  an  unhealthy  brain. 

On  Mr.  Irving's  visit  to  Scotland  in  the  year  1828, 
Dr.  Chalmers  heard  him  in  Edinburgh,  and  made  the 
following  note  in  his  journal : 

**I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  it  is  quite  awful. 
There  is  power  and  richness,  and  gleams  of  exquisite 
beauty,  but  withal  a  mysticism  and  an  extreme  allegori- 
sation,  which  I  am  sure  must  be  pernicious  to  the  general 
cause.  .  .  .  He  sent  me  a  letter  which  he  had  written 
to  the  king  against  the  repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corpora- 
tion Acts,  and  begged  that  I  would  read  every  word  of  it 
before  I  spoke.  I  did  so,  and  found  it  unsatisfactory 
and  obscure,  but  not  half  so  much  so  as  his  sermon  of 
this  evening/' 

It  is  convenient  to  give  here  Dr.  Chalmers'  account 
of  his  last  interview  with  Edward  Irving,  though  we 
anticipate  a  litde,  for  it  occurred  in  the  autumn  of  1830. 
Chalmers  was  in  London  : 


76  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

"  Had  a  very  interesting  call  from  Mr.  Irving  between 

one  and  two  (in  the  morning,  apparently!)  while  I  was  in 

bed.     He  stopped   two  hours,  wherein  he  gave  me  his 

expositions ;    and  I  gave  at  greater  length    and  liberty 
"j — 

than  I  had  ever  done  before  my  advice  and  my  views. 

We  parted  from  each  other  with  great  cordiality,  after  a 
prayer  which  he  himself  offered  and  delivered  with  great 
l^athos  and  piety." 

The  visit  of  Dr.  Chalmers  to  London  in  1827  had  for 
himself  no  result.  The  proposal  in  regard  to  the  London 
University  was  not  ripe,  and  it  came  to  nothing.  The 
lemoval  of  the  professor  from  St.  Andrews,  which  soon 
followed,  was  not  to  London,  but  to  Edinburgh.  Better 
so  ;  for  Chalmers,  while  not  at  all  narrow  or  prejudiced, 
was  a  Scotchman  out  and  out  in  mind,  heart,  and 
tongue ;  and  while  Englishmen  showed  him  great  kind- 
ness and  deference,  his  own  countrymen  understood 
him  best.  His  way  of  blending  argument  and  emotion, 
his  combination  of  strong  common-sense  with  fervent 
religious  conviction,  exactly  suited  them.  So  it  was,  on 
the  whole,  well  that,  from  this  date  to  the  end  of  his 
career,  the  capital  of  Scotland  was  the  place  of  residence 
of  her  most  illustrious  divine. 


CHAPTER  V. 

PROFESSOR  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  EDINBURGH. 
(1828-1843.) 

THE  Chair  of  Divinity  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh 
is  perhaps  the  most  influential  and  distinguished 
position  that  a  Scottish  clergyman  can  occupy.  The 
appointment  in  the  days  of  which  we  write  lay  in  the 
hands  of  the  Magistrates  and  Town  Council ;  and  by  a 
unanimous  vote  it  was  oft'ered  to  Dr.  Chalmers  in  the 
year  1827.  He  entered  on  the  duties  of  the  office  in  the 
following  year.  Simeon  of  Cambridge  spoke  of  this  as 
"of  vast  importance  to  the  interests  of  religion.  Dr. 
Chalmers,"  he  said,  "has  been  an  instrument  for  diffus- 
ing a  liberal  and  candid  spirit  in  Scotland." 

From  the  first  day  his  occupation  of  the  chair  was 
marked  by  brilliant  success,  and  his  class-room  was 
crowded,  not  with  regular  students  of  Divinity  only,  but 
also  with  intelligent  citizens  who  loved  the  theme  and 
admired  the  genius  of  the  teacher.     In  fact,  he  was  now 


78  THOMAS  CHALMERS, 

in  a  position  which,  more  than  any  that  he  had  yet  filled, 
enabled  him  to  make  use  of  all  his  powers  and  all  his 
acquirements.  His  studies  in  Natural  Science,  Political 
/  Economy,  and  Moral  Philosophy  could  be  made  tribu- 
tary to  his  prelections  in  the  Chair  of  Divinity,  the  more 
so  that  he  gave  prominence  in  the  opening  of  his  course 
to  Natural  Theology  and  the  Evidences  of  Christianity; 
while  his  practical  experience  as  a  preacher  and  pastor 
qualified  him  to  give  hints  and  counsels  to  students  that 
would  have  fallen  with  little  effect  from  a  mere  theorist, 
and  the  deep  religious  persuasion  which  now  possessed 
him  had  far  more  scope  for  influence  on  others  in  a 
Theological  Chair  than  it  would  have  had  in  any  other 
academical  post  which  he  could  possibly  have  held. 

Dr.  Chalmers  had  no  new^theology  to  teach.  His 
convictions  were  in  harmony  with  that  Westminster  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  which,  though  mainly  the  product  of 
English  Puritans,  has  become  the  symbol,  all  the  world 
over,  of  Scottish  Presbytery.  In  his  later  years  he  often 
expressed  a  distaste  for  the  extreme  definiteness  of  such 
documents,  and  desired  more  width  and  more  simplicity ; 
but  not  because  he  diverged  from  the  hereditary  evangeli- 
cal doctrines  of  his  Church  and  country.  Indeed,  the 
tenet  which  he  taught  with  the  greatest  emphasis  was 
that  truth  of  free  salvation  by  the  grace  of  God  through 
faith  in  Christ  which  had  made  a  new  man  of  him  at 
Kilmany,  and  had   been  the  theme  of  many  a  stirring 


PROFESSOR   IN  EDINBURGH    UNIVERSITY,      79 

address  from  his  pulpit  in  Glasgow.  Some,  however, 
thought  that  he  simplified  too  much  the  nature  of  that 
faith  through  which  the  gratuitous  salvation  is  received. 

Not  disposed  to  question  the  usual  evangelical 
doctrines  on  any  properly  theological  grounds,  Chalmers 
was  all  the  less  disposed  to  doubt  them  on  any  ground 
of  scriptural  exegesis.  He  never  was  an  exegete.  The 
minute  linguistic  knowledge  and  criticism  which  are  re- 
quired for  acute  grammatical  interpretation  of  the  Bible 
was  not  in  his  line,  though  his  posthumous  volumes  of 

f  Readings  show  with  what  regularity  and  piety  he  perused 
the  English  Bible  for  his  own  guidance  and  comfort,  and 
his  "Lectures  on  the  Episde  to  the  Romans"  furnish  a 
good  specimen  of  popular  exposition. 

In  all  that  Chalmers  said  and  did,  however,  there  was 
a  strong  individualism.  The  familiar,  popular  theology 
issued  from  him  in  his  own  way,  and  with  a  propelling 
force  all  his  own.  After  a  short  trial  he  laid  aside  the 
old  manner  of  the  Swiss  and  Dutch  divines  which  the 
Scotch  had  been  wont  to  follow,  and  which  began  with 
the  doctrine  of  God  and  the  Holy  Trinity ;  he  paid  no 
heed  to  the  English  fashion  of  following  the  course  of 
"the  Apostles'  Creed;"  but  blocked  out  a  new  method 
for  himself,   beginning   with   man's  moral    condition   as 

/  actually  seen  and  known,  and  then  tracing  the  provision 
which  has  been  made  for  man's  restoration  to  righteous- 
ness and  to  God.     Theologians  will  not  admit  either  the 


80  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

superiority  or  the  sufficiency  of  the  method.  It  is  the 
arrangement  of  a  preacher  rather  than  of  a  scientific  and 
systematic  divine.  But  it  suited  the  mental  habits  of  Dr. 
Chahners  to  pivot  himself  on  actual  and  fully  verified 
fact,  such  as  that  of  human  sinfulness,  and  it  enabled 
him  to  approach  the  Christian  faith,  as  he  loved  to  do, 
through  the  gate  of  ethics,  postponing  the  consideration 
of  "higher  and  transcendental  themes."  As  he  put 
it  in  characteristic  phrase,  it  made  "  the  order  of  our 
theoretical  to  quadrate  with  the  order  of  our  practical 
Christianity."  "The  doctrine  of  man's  moral  character 
should  occupy  the  first  place,  and  the  doctrine  of  God's 
mysterious  constitution  the  last  place,  in  the  argumenta- 
tions of  our  science." 

The  fact  is  that  the  intellect  of  Chalmers  could  work 
only  in  its  own  way.  He  was  far  too  prudent  a  man  to 
innovate  in  so  grave  a  matter  from  mere  fancy  or  self-will. 
He  has  told  how  much  he  hesitated  to  "  contravene  the 
order  of  every  system  and  every  text-book  in  theology 
that  we  are  yet  acquainted  with,  or  propose  to  deliver 
the  lessons  of  the  science  by  a  different  succession  of 
topics  from  that  in  which  Calvin  and  Turretin,  Pictetus 
and  Vitringa  have  delivered  them."  The  mention  of 
these  four  masters  in  theology  shows  that  Chalmers 
looked  back  mainly,  if  not  exclusively,  to  the  Reformed 
divines  of  the  Continent — the  Swiss  and  Dutch  systema- 
tisers.     To  Lutheran,  mediaeval,  and  patristic  writers  he 


PROFESSOR   IN  EDINBURGH   UNIVERSITY,      8l 

paid  but  little  heed.  An  acute  critic  among  his  col- 
leagues at  a  later  period  observed  that  Chalmers  was  "  a 
'"  theologist "  rather  than  a  theologian.  His  erudition  was 
sufficient  for  his  purpose,  but,  tried  by  modern  standards, 
it  certainly  was  not  extensive.  Many  books  would  have 
cumbered  him.  And  the  German  scholarship  which 
now  affects  religious  thought  so  powerfully  had  hardly 
reached  Scotland  in  the  time  of  Chalmers,  so  that  he 
could  content  himself  with  a  range  of  reading  far  more 
limited  than  divines  of  the  present  day  are  compelled  to 
undertake.  In  discussing  the  evidences  of  Christianity 
and  the  authenticity  of  the  New  Testament  writings,  he 
told  his  students  what  Leland  and  Lardner  had  advanced, 
and  how  Paley  had  reasoned.  When  the  time  came  to 
'  speak  of  Biblical  criticism  he  used  a  compend  of 
Home's  voluminous  work  as  a  text-book ;  and  though,  as 
we  have  said,  no  critic  himself,  he  fully  recognised  the 
importance  of  the  study,  urged  the  students  to  a  familiar 
acquaintance  with  the  original  text  of  the  Bible,  both 
Hebrew  and  Greek,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  some 
of  them  at  least  would  grow  to  be  good  critics  and  philo- 
logists. He  discoursed  admirably  on  the  relation  of 
criticism  to  Divinity.  "  Theology  without  criticism  is 
just  as  airy  and  unsupported  a  nothing  as  were  a  philo- 
sophy without  facts ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  without  a 
systematic  Divinity,  it  is  just  as  confused  and  chaotic  a 
jumble  as  were  an  undigeFced  medley  of  facts  without  a 


-f- 


83  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

philosophy."  But  his  own  favourite  occupation  certainly 
did  not  lie  "in  the  ponderous  and  recondite  scholarship 
of  those  mighty  tomes  which,  in  the  shapes  of  Polyglots, 
and  Prolegomena,  and  Thesauruses,  lie  piled  in  vast  and 
venerable  products  on  the  least  frequented  shelves  of  our 
public  libraries." 

His  great  masters  whom  he  was  never  weary  of  extol- 
ling were  Bishop  Butler  and  President  Jonathan  Edwards. 
The  former  was  his  chief  guide  in  ethics,  and  all  that 
belongs  to  the  vindication  of  Christianity.  "I  have 
derived,"  wrote  Dr.  Chalmers,  "  greater  aid  from  the 
views  and  reasonings  of  Bishop  Butler  than  I  have  been 
able  to  find  besides  in  the  whole  range  of  our  existant 
authorship."  The  latter  was  the  teacher  whom  he  most 
fully  trusted  on  arduous  doctrines  like  predestination, 
original  sin,  and  justification.  He  appealed  fervently  to 
his  class  to  "  copy  the  virtues  and  imbibe  the  theology  of 
Edwards." 

Dr.  Chalmers  did  not  disdain  the  guidance  of  writers 
of  a  rank  considerably  below  that  of  Butler  and  Edwards. 
He  used  as  a  text-book  the  judicious  but  commonplace, 
and  now  almost  forgotten,  lectures  of  Dr.  Hill,  of  St. 
Andrews,  generously  avowing  some  degree  of  pride  in 
that  work,  "  as  having  issued  from  my  own  university, 
and  as  being  executed  by  the  hand  of  my  first  master  in 
the  science."  But  whatever  the  assistance  which  Chal- 
mers took  from  manuals  and  text-books,   no   one  who 


PROFESSOR   IN  EDINBURGH    UNIVERSITY,      8^ 

heard  him  could  ever  feel  as  though  he  were  under  a 
mere  theological  drill-master.  The  mind  of  the  Pro- 
fessor, whether  he  lectured  independently  or  commented 
on  the  deliverances  of  another,  worked  steadily  and 
powerfully  through  the  subject,  and  poured  arguments 
and  illustrations  on  the  class  till  every  one  who  had  any 
intellectual  or  spiritual  apprehension  was  conscious  of 
being  before  a  true  "master  in  Israel."  Then,  as  one 
troop  of  students  after  another  passed  under  this  influence, 
and  not  only  told  but  showed  what  Chalmers  had  been 
to  them,  all  Scotland  knew  that  a  notable  divine  sat  in 
the  chair  of  Rollock. 

The  ''  Institutes  of  Theology,"  published  in  two 
volumes  after  the  author's  death,  give  the  best  results  of 
his  thinking  on  theology  both  natural  and  revealed.  It 
is  a  work  which  may  be  all  the  more  recommended  to 
the  modern  reader,  that  its  style  is  more  condensed  and 
chastened  than  that  of  the  writer's  earlier  productions. 
The  arrangement  is  as  follows  :  There  are  three  books 
preliminary  to  the  subject-matter.  The  first  of  these 
deals  briefly  with  Ethics  and  Metaphysics ;  the  second 
with  Natural  Theology;  and  the  third  with  Evidences  of 
Christianity.  Then  comes  "the  snbject-matter  of  Chris- 
tianity," in  three  parts.  The  first  treats  "of  the  disease 
for  which  the  gospel  remedy  is  provided ; "  the  second, 
of  "the  nature  of  the  gospel  remedy  ;  "  and  the  third,  of 
"  the   extent  of  the  gospel   remedy."     This   course   is 


t 


84  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

rendered  more  complete  by  supplementary  lectures,  and 
by  the  annotations  or  expositions  on  the  class-books. 
The  plans  suited  the  Professor's  bent  of  mind,  and  so 
was  best  for  him  ;  but  as  a  generalisation  in  the  science 
of  Theology  it  is  obviously  incomplete.  Compare  it  with 
that  of  Dr.  Hodge,  of  Princeton — (i)  Theology  proper, 
(2)  Anthropology,  (3)  Soteriology,  (4)  Eschatology,  (5) 
Ecclesiology.  And  yet  even  this  is  not  perfect,  for 
(as  Hodge  himself  has  remarked)  it  assigns  no  place 
to  Moral  Theology,  or  the  direction  of  the  Christian 
conscience  in  duty. 

Dr.  Chalmers  was  a  firm  predestinarian.  In  one  of  his 
lectures  he  describes  the  horror  of  Calvinism  which  he 
had  found  in  England  as  more  sensitive  than  rational. 
"  Our  northern  theology  is  regarded  with  a  kind  of 
dismay,  and  this  awful  predestination  is  emphatically 
denounced  as  far  the  harshest  and  most  offensive  feature 
which  belongs  to  it.  I  should  have  deemed  it  so  too,  had 
it  not  been  for  my  thorough  conviction  that  it  left  the 
offers  of  mercy,  and  the  calls  to  righteousness,  and  all  the 
motives  and  all  the  urgencies  to  a  life  of  virtue  on  the 
very  footing  in  which  it  found  them  ;  and  as  to  any  other 
mischief  of  the  doctrine  itself,  I  think  that  the  best  proof 
upon  this  and  any  other  topic  is  an  experimental  one, 
whenever  we  are  able  to  find  it.  Ere  I  admit  the  charge  of 
our  doctrine  being  hostile  to  the  interests  of  virtue,  I 
must  first  inquire  into  the  state  of  our  national  character 


PROFESSOR   IN  EDINBURGH    UNIVERSITY,      85 

at  the  time  when  that  doctrine  was  most  zealously  pro- 
fessed by  our  people  and  most  faithfully  preached  in  our 
pulpits.  We  know  not  a  broader  and  a  stronger  experi- 
mental basis  on  which  to  try  this  question  than  a  whole 
nation  of  Calvinists.  And  if  it  be  true  that  the  theology 
of  our  pulpits  is  fitted  to  shed  a  withering  blight  on  all 
the  moralities  of  the  human  character,  what  is  the  explana- 
tion which  can  be  offered,  if  it  be  found,  notwithstand- 
ing an  influence  so  baleful,  that  Scotland,  at  the  time 
when  that  theology  most  flourished  and  prevailed,  lifted, 
throughout  all  her  parishes,  so  erect  a  front  among  the 
nations  of  Christendom — not  for  the  intelligence  alone, 
but  for  the  worth  and  practical  virtues  of  her  population?" 
At  the  same  time,  Chalmers  could  not  be  a  bigot 
about  this  or  any  dogma.  He  distinguished  between 
^r^  the  truth  of  a  doctrine  and  its  necessity  as  an  article  of 
faith,  either  to  the  Church  or  to  an  individual  Christian. 
Far  from  looking  coldly  on  non-Calvinists,  he  pleaded 
for  agreement  with  thern,  remarking,  in  his  characteristic 
style,  that  "  movements  of  divergence  "  should  cease  and 
a  "movement  of  convergence  "  begin.  He  also  was 
quite  aware  that,  though  the  tenet  of  Divine  predestination 
must  not  and  should  not  limit  offers  of  mercy  or  weaken 
calls  to  righteousness,  it  may  be,  and  has  been,  so  taught 
as  to  produce  the  benumbing  effect  of  fatalism  on  the 
unhappy  hearers.  Therefore  he  earnestly  warned  his 
students  against  injuring  the  gospel  "  by  a  misunderstood 


86  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

^^  and  misapplied  Calvinism."  He  never  let  himself  or 
them  forget  that  they  were  in  training  for  the  ministry 
of  the  Word ;  and  it  was  quite  a  feature  in  his  course 
that,  after  expounding  some  arduous  doctrine,  he  gave  a 
lecture  on  the  way  in  which  it  should  be  taught  to  the 
people,  thus  utilising  his  own  experience  in  the  pulpit 
and  the  pastoral  care.  When  he  had  completed  his 
instruction  on  "  the  disease  for  which  the  gospel  remedy 
is  provided"  he  added  a  lecture  on  "the  practical  and 
pulpit  treatment  of  this  subject."  When  he  had  descanted 
on  the  Atonement,  he  at  once  addressed  the  class  "on 
the  preaching  of  Christ  crucified  as  the  great  vehicle  for 
the  lessons  of  a  full  and  free  gospel."  And  at  the  end  of 
his  second  part  he  lectured  "  on  the  preaching  of  good 
works  and  of  all  virtue."  One  of  the  supplementary 
lectures  has  this  title  :  **0n  the  distinction  between  the 
mode  in  which  Theology  should  be  learned  at  the  Hall 
and  the  mode  in  which  it  should  be  taught  from  the 
pulpit " — a  theme  which  would  not  have  occurred  to  any 
mere  theological  pedant !  But  Chalmers  knew  what 
might,  could,  and  should  be  done  in  a  pulpit,  and  what 
might,  could,  and  should  not. 

The  views  of  Dr.  Chalmers  on  Church  government 
were  very  mild  He  was  a  Presbyterian,  but  allowed  that 
Independency  might  be  lawful,  and  that  Episcopacy  was 
lawful.  Enough  that  neither  of  these  forms  was  obliga- 
tory.    "  Instead  of  being  decisively  settled  in  Scripture, 


+ 


PROFESSOR   IN  EDINBURGH    UNIVERSITY,      Sj 

Church  government  has  been  left  very  much  to  the 
discretion  of  Christian  men,"  He  attached  far  more 
importance  to  the  independence  of  the  Church  than  to 
its  form  of  polity,  and  so  early  as  the  year  1831  wrote 
for  his  class  words  which  contain  all  that  he  afterwards 
contended  for  in  a  long  and  momentous  controversy. 
"  In  Scotland  the  Church  permits  no  interference  what- 
ever by  the  civil  power  in  things  ecclesiastical.  Her 
doctrine,  her  discipline,  her  modes  of  worship  are  her 
own." 

We  find  no  evidence  that  the  mind  of  Chalmers 
looked  at  the  growth  of  doctrinal  ideas  along  the  line  of 
historical  perspective,  or  examined  with  care  that  dis- 
pensational  development  of  truth  and  privilege  which 
has  so  much  interest  for  present-day  students.  Neither 
did  he  make  much  of  prophecy.  He  listened  patiently 
to  Mr.  Irving,  and  to  wiser  men  who  had  made  a  special 
study  of  the  visions  and  predictions  in  Scripture ;  but 
their  solutions  were  too  problematical  to  satisfy  a  mind 
like  his.  When  he  alludes  to  the  subject  it  is  always 
with  some  hesitation  and  reserve.  Yet  it  seems  certain 
that  he  leaned  decidedly  towards  those  Millenarian  or 
Premillenarian  views  which  have  been  generally  dis-  j 
credited  by  the  Scottish  clergy.  In  proof  of  this  we  may 
cite  two  or  three  extracts  from  letters  of  his  which  have 
been  published : 

To  Mrs.  Paul.     (St.  Andrews,  20th  Oct.,  1827.)     "I 


88  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

am  now  reading  in  ordinary  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  and 
derive  occasional  aid  from  M'CuUoch's  Lectures.  He  is 
not  a  Millenarian,  which  I  am  now  very  much  inclined 
to  be." 

To  Rev.  C.  Bridges.  (Burntisland,  12th  April,  1836.) 
"  I  find  that  Mr.  Bickersteth  is  decided  in  opinion  of 
Christ's  personal  reign,  and  I  am  very  far  from  being 
decided  against  it.  But  I  have  not  yet  got  beyond  Mede 
upon  this  question,  who  certainly  left  it  indeterminate, 
though  I  am  far  more  confident  than  I  wont  to  be  that 
there  is  to  be  a  coming  of  Christ  which  is  to  precede  the 
Millennium." 

To  Rev.  Horatius  Bonar.  (Edinburgh,  9th  Jan., 
1847.)  *'  I  approximate  much  nearer  to  your  prophetical 
views  than  I  did  in  my  younger  days." 

No  one  ever  proclaimed  the  insufficiency  of  a  mere 
't^~  /lead  religion,  or  dry  orthodoxy,  more  than  Chalmers  did 
to  his  theological  class.  He  warned  the  students  that  their 
having  mastered  the  propositions  of  Christianity  might 
avail  them  as  little  in  real  religion  as  "  having  mastered 
the  propositions  in  conic  sections."  "  There  are  examples 
innum.erable  in  the  history  of  the  Church — sound  and 
erudite  theologians,  champions,  redoubted  champions,  of 
leading  articles  in  the  evangelical  system,  yet  without  one 
particle  in  their  hearts  of  the  spirit  or  unction  of  evan- 
gelical piety."  He  therefore  exhorted  the  young  can- 
didates for  the  ministry  not  to  think  it  enough  to  make 


y^ 


PROFESSOR   IN  EDINBURGH    UNIVERSITY.      89 

attainments  in  didactic  theology,  and  not  to  give  them- 
selves up  to  the  keenness  of  controversial  theology 
{theologia  elencticd),  but  to  be  vital  Christians,  spiritual 
men,  adding  to  the  acquisition  of  the  truth  "  the  ex- 
perience of  its  effects  in  transforming  the  character  and 
hastening  forward  the  preparations  of  eternity."  He  had 
in  his  memory  the  years  when  he  had  himself,  though 
minister  of  a  parish,  been  a  stranger  to  the  power  of  the 
truth ;  and  he  did  not  hide  it  from  the  young  men  before 
him  that  he  desired  them  above  all  things  to  be  from 
the  outset  living  and  enlightened  Christians,  humble, 
devout,  and  "  serious  in  a  serious  cause.'*  \,^ 


CHAPTER  VI. 

VISITS  TO  ENGLAND  AND   TO  FRANCE, 

WE  have  seen  that  Dr.  Chahiiers  was  a  kindly, 
companionable  man,  who  visited  his  friends, 
and  had  a  keen  pleasure  in  intelligent  conversation.  He 
was  without  small  talk,  and  did  not  speak  freely  unless 
he  was  drawn  out  on  some  favourite  theme.  But  he 
always  impressed  himself  on  those  whom  he  met  in 
society,  or  into  whose  houses  he  entered,  as  a  man  of 
power  and  a  man  of  God,  while  candid  and  unaffected 
as  a  child. 

He  vasdy  enjoyed  occasional  expeditions  into  England, 
partly  because  he  was  a  great  lover  of  quiet  scenery, 
partly  because  he  had  relatives  and  friends  on  Eng- 
lish ground  whom  he  wished  to  see,  but  also  be- 
cause he  was  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  see  influential 
men  and  advance  cherished  projects  in  the  Metropolis, 
notwithstanding  its  "  insufferable  urgency. "  It  will  be 
remembered  that  his  early  plan  for  himself  at  Kilmany 


VISITS   TO   ENGLAND   AND    TO   FRANCE.       9 1 

was  to  regulate  his  private  expenditure  so  as  to  have 
an  "occasional  jaunt  to  London."  It  was  a  modest 
ambition,  and  was  gratified  far  beyond  what  the  young 
country  pastor  could  have  dreamed. 

At  the  period  of  his  life  which  we  have  now  reached 
Dr.  Chalmers  was  more  than  once  in  London,  and  in 
other  cities  of  England ;  and  very  interesting  accounts 
of  the  observations  which  he  made  and  the  im- 
pressions he  conveyed  and  received  have,  happily,  been 
preserved.  His  reputation  as  an  author,  and  the 
furore  excited  by  his  former  appearance  in  London, 
gave  him  access  to  the  very  elite  of  the  intellectual 
and  religious  society  of  the  time;  and  he  was  fully 
recognised  as  a  man  of  the  first  class,  one  of  the 
living  powers  of  his  generation.  Sir  James  Mackintosh, 
Lord  Lansdowne,  Lord  (then  Mr.)  Brougham,  Mr.  Cole- 
ridge, Dr.  Lushington,  Mrs.  Joanna  Baillie,  and  Sir 
Robert  Inglis  were  among  his  appreciative  friends.  In 
the  splendid  philanthropic  circle  of  the  Gurneys,  the 
Hoares,  and  Mrs.  Fry  he  saw  with  delight  that  practical 
demonstration  of  the  power  of  Christian  faith  and  love 
for  which  he  had  so  often  pleaded.  ]\Ir.  J.  J.  Gurney 
wrote  his  reminiscences  of  Dr.  Chalmers  at  this  period. 
In  these  there  is  a  description  of  a  visit  paid  to  Mr. 
Wilberforce,  with  a  graphic  account  of  the  senator  and 
the  divine  in  conversation. 

"Our   morning  passed   delightfully.     Chalmers   was, 


93     '  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

indeed,  comparatively  silent,  as  he  often  is  when  many 
persons  are  collected,  and  the  stream  of  conversation 
flowed  between  ourselves  and  the  ever  lively  Wilberforce 
I  have  seldom  observed  a  more  amusing  and  pleasing 
contrast  between  two  great  men  than  between  Wilber- 
force and  Chalmers.  Chalmers  is  stout  and  erect,  with 
a  broad  countenance,  Wilberforce  minute  and  singularly 
twisted.  Chalmers,  both  in  body  and  mind,  moves  with 
a  deliberate  step;  Wilberforce,  infirm  as  he  is  in  his 
advanced  years,  flies  about  with  astonishing  activity,  and 
while  with  nimble  finger  he  seizes  on  everything  that 
adorns  or  diversifies  his  path,  his  mind  flits  from  object 
to  object  with  unceasing  versatility.  I  often  think  that 
particular  men  bear  about  with  them  an  analogy  to  par- 
ticular animals.  Chalmers  is  like  a  good-tempered  lion, 
Wilberforce  is  like  a  bee.  Chalmers  can  say  a  pleasant 
thing  now  and  then,  and  laugh  when  he  has  said  it,  and 
he  has  a  strong  touch  of  humour  in  his  countenance ; 
but  in  general  he  is  grave,  his  thoughts  grow  to  a  great 
size  before  they  are  uttered.  Wilberforce  sparkles  with 
life  and  wit,  and  the  characteristic  of  his  mind  is  '  rapid 
productiveness.'  A  man  might  be  in  Chalmers'  company 
for  an  hour,  especially  in  a  party,  without  knowing  who 
or  what  he  was,  though  in  the  end  he  would  be  sure  to 
be  detected  by  some  unexpected  display  of  powerful 
originality.  Wilberforce,  except  when  fairly  asleep,  is 
never  latent     Chalmers  knows  how  to  veil  himself  in  a 


VISITS   TO  ENGLAND   AND    TO   FRANCE.        93 

decent  cloud,  Wilberforce  is  always  in  sunshine.  Seldom, 
I  believe,  has  any  mind  been  more  strung  to  a  perpetual 
tune  of  love  and  praise.  Yet  these  persons,  distinguished 
as  they  are  from  the  world  at  large  and  from  each  other, 
present  some  admirable  points  of  resemblance.  Both  of 
them  are  broad  thinkers  and  liberal  feelers ;  both  of  them 
are  arrayed  in  humility,  meekness,  and  charity;  both 
appear  to  hold  self  in  litde  reputation;  above  all,  both 
love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  reverently  acknowledge 
him  to  be  their  o///y  Savionr.'^ 

During  one  of  his  visits  to  London  Dr.  Chalmers  went 
to  Court,  as  a  member  of  a  deputation  from  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  charged  with  an  address  of  congratulation 
to  King  William  IV.  on  his  accession  to  the  throne. 
His  account  of  the  occasion,  given  in  a  letter  to  one  of 
his  daughters,  is  amusing.  ''  We  went  in  three  coaches, 
and  landed  at  the  palace  entry  about  half-past  one. 
Ascended  the  stair  ;  passed  through  a  magnificent  lobby, 
between  rows  of  glittering  attendants  all  dressed  in 
gold  and  scarlet.  Ushered  into  a  large  ante-room,  full 
of  all  sorts  of  company  walking  about  and  collecting 
there  for  attendance  on  the  leve'e  :  military  and  naval 
officers  in  splendid  uniforms  ;  high  legal  gentlemen  with 
enormous  wigs  ;  ecclesiastics,  from  archbishops  to  curates 
and  inferior  clergy.  Our  deputation  made  a  most  re- 
spectable appearance  among  them,  with  our  cocked  three- 
cornered   hats   under   our   arms,    our   bands    upon  our 


94  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

breasts,  and  our  gowns  of  Geneva  upon  our  backs.  Mine 
did  not  lap  so  close  as  I  would  have  liked,  so  that  I  was 
twice  as  thick  as  I  should  be ;  and  it  must  have  been 
palpable  to  every  eye  at  the  first  glance  that  I  was  the 
greatest  man  there,  and  that  though  I  took  ail  care  to 
keep  my  coat  unbuttoned  and  my  gown  quite  open. 
However,  let  not  mamma  be  alarmed,  for  I  made  a  most 
respectable  appearance,  and  was  treated  with  the  utmost 
attention.  I  saw  the  Archbishop  of  York  in  the  room, 
but  did  not  get  within  speech  of  him.  To  make  up  for 
this,  however,  I  was  introduced  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  who  was  very  civil ;  saw  the  Bishop  of 
London,  with  whom  I  had  a  good  deal  of  talk,  and  am 
to  dine  on  Friday ;  was  made  up  to  by  Admiral  Sir 
Philip  Durham ;  and  was  further  introduced,  at  their 
request,  to  Sir  John  Leach,  Master  of  the  Rolls,  to  Lord 
Chief  Justice  Tindall,  to  the  Marquis  of  Bute,  &c.  But 
far  the  most  interesting  object  there  was  Talleyrand — 
whom  I  could  get  nobody  to  introduce  me  to — splendidly 
attired  as  the  French  Ambassador,  attended  by  some 
French  military  officers.  I  gazed  with  interest  on  the 
old  shrivelled  face  of  him,  and  thought  I  could  see  there 
the  lines  of  deep  reflection  and  lofty  talent.  His  moral 
physiognomy,  however,  is  a  downright  blank.  He  was 
by  far  the  most  important  continental  personage  in  the 
•room,  and  drew  all  eyes.  I 'was  further  in  conversation 
with  Lord  Melville,  Mr.  Spencer  Percival,  and  Mr.  Henry 


VISITS    TO   ENGLAND   AND    TO   FRANCE.        (J5 

Drummond.  The  door  to  the  middle  apartment  was  at 
length  opened  for  us,  when  we  entered  in  processional 
order.  The  Moderator  first,  with  Drs.  Macknight  and 
Cook  on  each  side  of  him  ;  I  and  Dr.  Lee  side  by  side 
followed ;  Mr.  Paul  and  Mr.  George  Sinclair,  with  their 
swords  and  bags,  formed  the  next  row ;  then  Sir  John 
Connel  and  Sir  Henry  Jardine ;  and  last  of  all,  Mr. 
Pringle,  M.P.,  and  Dr.  Stewart.  We  stopped  in  the 
middle  room — equally  crowded  with  the  former,  and  alike 
splendid  with  mirrors,  chandeliers,  pictures,  and  gildings 
of  all  sorts  on  the  roof  and  walls — for  about  ten  minutes, 
when  at  length  the  folding-doors  to  the  grand  state-room 
were  thrown  open.  We  all  made  a  low  bow  on  our  first 
entry,  and  the  king,  seated  on  the  throne  at  the  opposite 
end,  took  off  his  hat,  putting  it  on  again.  We  marched 
up  to  the  middle  of  the  room  and  made  another  low 
bow,  when  the  king  again  took  off  his  hat ;  we  then  pro- 
ceeded to  the  foot  of  the  throne  and  all  made  a  third  low 
bow,  on  which  the  King  again  took  off  his  hat.  After 
this  the  Moderator  read  his  address,  which  was  a  little 
long,  and  the  king  bowed  repeatedly  while  it  was  reading. 
The  Moderator  then  reached  the  address  to  the  king 
upon  the  throne,  who  took  it  from  him  and  gave  it  to 
Sir  Robert  Peel  on  his  left  hand,  who  in  his  turn  gave 
the  king  his  written  reply,  which  he  read  very  well. 
After  this  the  Moderator  went  up  to  the  stool  before  the 
throne,  leaned  his  left  knee  upon  it,  and  kissed  the  king's 


96  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

hand.  We  each  in  our  turn  did  the  same  thing ;  the 
Moderator  naming  every  one  of  us  as  we  advanced.  I 
went  through  my  kneel  and  my  kiss  very  comfortably. 
The  king  said  something  to  each  of  us.  His  first 
question  to  me  was,  '  Do  you  reside  constantly  in 
Edinburgh?'  I  said,  'Yes,  an't  please  your  Majesty.' 
His  next  question  was,  '  How  long  do  you  remain  in 
town?'  I  said,  'Till  Monday,  an't  please  your  ^Majesty.' 
I  then  descended  the  steps  leading  from  the  foot  of  the 
throne  to  the  floor,  and  fell  into  my  place  in  the  depu- 
tation. After  we  had  all  been  thus  introduced,  we  began 
to  retire  in  a  body  just  as  we  had  come,  bowing  all  the 
way  with  our  faces  to  the  king,  and  so  moving  backwards, 
when  the  king  called  out,  '  Don't  go  away,  gendemen  ;  I 
shall  leave  the  throne  and  the  queen  will  succeed  me.' 
We  stopped  in  the  middle  of  the  floor,  when  the  most 
beautiful  living  sight  I  ever  beheld  burst  upon  our 
delighted  gaze — the  queen  with  twelve  maids  of  honour, 
in  a  perfect  spangle  of  gold  and  diamonds,  entered  the 
room.  I  am  sorry  I  cannot  go  over  in  detail  the  par- 
ticulars of  their  dresses ;  only  that  their  lofty  plumes 
upon  their  heads  and  their  long  sweeping  trains  upon 
the  floor  had  a  very  magnificent  effect.  She  took  her 
seat  on  the  throne,  and  we  made  the  same  profound 
obeisances  as  before,  advancing  to  the  foot  of  the  steps 
that  lead  to  the  footstool  of  the  throne.  A  short  ad- 
dress was  read  to  her  as  before ;  and  her  reply  was  most 


VISITS   TO   ENGLAND   AND    TO   FRANCE.        97 

beautifully  given  in  a  rather  tremulous  voice,  and  just  as 
low  as  that  I  could  only  hear  and  no  more.  We  went 
through  the  same  ceremonial  of  advancing  successively 
and  kissing  hands,  and  then  retired  with  three  bows, 
which  the  queen  returned  most  gracefully,  but  with  all 
the  simplicity — I  had  almost  said  bashfulness^of  a  timid 
country  girl.  She  is  really  a  very  natural  and  amiable- 
looking  person." 

Seven  years  later  Dr.  Chalmers  had  another  day  at 
Court.  Queen  Victoria  had  succeeded  William,  and 
Chalmers  was  on  two  deputations  sent  with  loyal 
addresses,  one  from  the  Church  of  Scotland,  the  other 
from  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  Of  the  latter  he 
seems  to  have  been  leader,  and  he  describes  his  per- 
formance thus  : 

"  This,  being  the  first  of  all  Queen  Victoria's  levees, 
■was  crowded  beyond  all  example.  We  had  sad  squeez- 
ing to  get  into  the  second  room,  and  thence  to  the 
third,  or  chamber  of  presence.  Got  my  first  view  of  the 
Queen  on  entering  the  third  or  last  room.  A  most  interest- 
ing girlish  sensibility  to  the  realities  of  her  situation,  with 
sufficient  self-command,  but  withal  simple,  timid,  tremu- 
lous, and  agitated,  that  rendered  her  to  me  far  more  in- 
teresting, and  awoke  a  more  feeling  and  fervent  loyalty 
in  my  heart  than  could  have  been  done  by  any  other 
exhibition.  Having  kissed  her  hand  and  passed,  and 
forgetting  to  give  her  my  University  address,  wrapped  up 


9 8  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

in  a  roll,  I  was  proceeding  along  with  it  in  my  hand 
when  I  was  checked  by  one  of  the  lords  in  waiting, 
and  instantly  put  it  into  the  hands  of  her  Majesty." 

The  cordiality  shown  to  Dr.  Chalmers  at  this  period  by 
the  archbishop  and  by  several  of  the  English  bishops — 
not  least  by  Bishop  Philpotts,  of  Exeter — was  largely  due 
to  his  conspicuous  defence  of  National  Establishments 
of  Religion.  For  mere  pomp  and  prestige  conferred  by 
the  State  he  cared  little.  It  was  the  utility  of  the 
parochial  system  that  he  prized.  With  contempt  of 
Dissenters  he  had  no  sympathy  whatever.  On  the  con- 
trary, he  said  publicly  at  Bristol,  in  the  year  1830  :  "In 
connection  with  an  Establishment  we  wish  ever  to  see 
an  able,  vigorous,  and  flourishing  Dissenterism.  The 
services  of  Dissenters  are  needed  to  supplement  the 
deficiencies,  and  to  correct  and  compensate  for  the 
vices,  of  an  Establishment,  as  far  as  that  Establishment 
has  the  misfortune  to  labour  under  the  evil  of  a  lax  and 
negligent  administration,  a  corrupt  and  impure  patron- 
age. Such  wholesome  dissent  is  a  purifier,  and  because 
a  purifier,  a  strengthener  of  the  Church."  It  will  be 
observed  that  here  also  Chalmers  thought  of  practical 
work  and  results  only,  and  gave  himself  no  concern  about 
the  validity  of  *'  orders "  among  the  Nonconformists. 
Seeing  so  vividly  the  need  of  Christian  teaching  and 
activity,  he  cared  not  to  stop  any  one  with  the  inquiry, 
*'Who   gave   thee   authority  to   speak   or  to  work  for 


VISITS    TO   ENGLAND   AND    TO   FRANCE.       99 

Jesus  Christ?"  Still  he  was  very  firm  in  the  persuasion 
that  the  maintenance  of  a  national  clergy,  with  "the 
frequent  parish  church — that  most  beauteous  spectacle 
to  a  truly  Christian  heart,  because  to  him  the  richest  in 
moral  associations — was  absolutely  indispensable  to  pre- 
serve and  continue  the  Christianity  of  the  country. 
We  are  ready,"  he  said,  "  to  admit  that  the  working  of 
the  apparatus  might  be  made  greatly  more  efficient,  but 
we  at  the  same  time  contend  that,  were  it  taken  down, 
the  result  would  be  tantamount  to  a  moral  bligiit  on  the 
length  and  breadth  of  our  land."  He  went  so  far  in  this 
direction  as  actually  to  applaud  the  Church  Establish- 
ment in  Ireland.  Before  a  Select  Committee  of  the 
House  of  Commons  he  said,  in  1830:  "I  hold  the 
Established  Church  of  Ireland,  in  spite  of  all  that  has 
been  alleged  against  it,  to  be  our  very  best  machinery 
for  the  moral  and  political  regeneration  of  that  country. 
Were  it  to  be  overthrown,  I  should  hold  it  a  death-blow 
to  the  best  hopes  of  Ireland."  But  he  added  some 
strong  observations  on  the  necessity  of  using  the  right  of 
Church  patronage  well,  so  as  to  fill  Ireland  with  "a  good 
Protestant  clergy." 

Dignitaries  of  the  Church  of  England  were  highly 
pleased  to  hear  this  eloquent  voice  from  Scotland  lifted 
up  apparently  in  support  of  their  system  and  their  position. 
They  took  no  notice  of  what  Chalmers  always  taught 
regarding  the  spiritual  autonomy  of  the  Church.    Indeed, 


100  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

they  could  not  seriously  entertain  such  a  view,  being  the 
i^relates  of  a  Church  which,  at  all  events  since  the 
Reformation,  has  never  had  any  such  autonomy  or 
independence,  either  by  statute  or  by  usage.  And 
Chalmers  on  his  part  did  not  sufficiently  inquire  whether 
his  idea  of  an  Establishment  was  possible  in  England, 
or  so  much  as  conceivable  by  English  minds  accustomed 
to  a  quite  different  theory  of  the  connection  of  Church 
and  State.  He  did  not,  so  far  as  we  can  discover,  even 
look  at  the  difficulty  presented  by  a  prelatic  constitution 
and  a  sacerdotal  theory  of  the  Christian  ministry  as  con- 
trasted with  the  representative  system  of  a  Presbyterian 
Church  in  which  the  rivalries  of  clericalism  and  lay- 
manism  are  unknown.  But  it  is  only  fair  to  him  to 
remember  that  he  never  concealed  his  ideal  of  an 
Established  Church  as  one  which,  while  nationally  re- 
cognised and  honoured^  should  have  an  independent 
jurisdiction  in  the  spiritual  province  as  distinguished 
from  the  civil ;  and  that  he  avowed  this  to  be  his  under- 
standing of  the  position  of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  For 
control  of  a  Church  in  her  spiritual  acts  and  proceedings 
by  the  Crown,  or  by  the  authority  of  the  State,  Chalmers 
could  not  say  'a  word.  Before  his  life  closed  he  showed 
what  tremendous  emphasis  he  was  prepared  to  lay  on 
the  contrary  principle,  at  least  in  his  own  country.  But 
at  the  time  we  speak  of  his  mind  was  full  of  the  advan- 
tages which  an  Establishment  gave  for  the  maintenance  of 


VISITS   TO   ENGLAND   AND   TO   FRANCE.     lOI 

Christian  ordinances  in  some  fair  proportion  to  the  whole 
population,  and  for  the  Christian  oversight  of  the  poor 
by  parochial  agency.  He  therefore  acceded  to  the  re- 
quest of  many  influential  persons,  that  he  should  deliver 
a  short  course  of  lectures  in  the  Metropolis  on  the  true 
theory  of  a  religious  Establishment. 

Any  one  who  passed  through  Hanover  Square  on 
certain  afternoons  in  the  spring  of  1838  must  have  seen 
a  wonderful  line  of  equipages ;  for  the  Hanover  Square 
Rooms — changed  a  few  years  ago  into  a  club-house —  ^'i^ 
were  filled  with  a  most  distinguished  company.  Royalty 
was  there,  as  represented  by  the  Queen's  uncle,  the 
Duke  of  Cambridge.  Peers  and  peeresses  and  members 
of  parliament  were  present  in  scores.  On  one  afternoon 
nine  bishops  made  their  appearance.  They  had  come 
to  hear  Chalmers,  who  sat  while  he  read  his  lecture,  but 
none  the  less  held  his  fastidious  audience  entranced 
from  the  first  moment  to  the  last.  Occasionally  he 
sprang  unconsciously  to  his  feet  and  delivered  a  magni- 
ficent passage  with  a  power  that  stirred  intense  enthu- 
siasm, and  in  one  instance  brought  the  whole  assembly 
to  their  feet,  cheering  to  the  echo. 

The  lectures  were  at  once  published,  and  had  a  large 
sale,  eight  thousand  copies  having  been  circulated  in  one 
year.  Their  title  well  describes  their  purport,  for  in  those 
days  title-pages  were  fairly  descriptive,  not  enigmatic 
— "  Upon  the  Establishment  and  Extension  of  National 


102  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

Churches,  as  affording  the  only  adequate  Machinery 
for  the  Moral  and  Christian  Instruction  of  a  People." 
It  is  quite  possible  that  arrows  may  be  taken  from  this 
old  quiver  for  use  in  impending  controversy,  but  we  con- 
fess that  we  survey  the  arguments  of  Chalmers  with  a 
feeling  that,  however  sound  in  themselves,  they  have 
fallen  out  of  date.  The  nation  is  no  longer  homo- 
geneous in  faith  and  worship.  The  very  desire  of  such 
accordance  seems  to  be  fading  away;  and  whether  we 
like  it  or  no,  the  time  of  rival  and  competing  Churches 
has  come.  The  problem,  therefore,  about  which 
Chalmers  was  so  anxious — "the  moral  and  Christian 
instruction  of  the  people" — cannot  be  committed,  unless 
in  part  only,  to  the  "machinery"  of  which  he  spake. 
The  question  now  is  how  to  combine  the  operations  of 
n».any  Christian  agencies ;  or,  where  they  refuse  to  be 
combined,  how  to  prevent  them  from  hurting,  impeding, 
or  interfering  with  each  other.  It  certainly  taxes  the 
energies  of  all  to  cope  with  the  secularism  and  wicked- 
ness of  the  age. 

Honours  were  at  this  period  of  his  life  heaped  on 
Dr.  Chalmers.  Indeed,  we  do  not  remember  the  name 
of  any  minister  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  since  the 
Reformation  who  received  so  many.  We  have  seen 
that  in  1815  the  University  of  Glasgow  made  him 
Doctor  in  Divinity.  In  1830  he  was  appointed  one  of 
his  Majesty's  Chaplains  in  Ordinary  for  Scotland,  under 


VISITS    TO   ENGLAND   AND    TO   FRANCE.     I03 

the  advice  of  Sir  Robert  Peel.  In  1832  he  was 
Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Cliurch  of 
Scotland.  In  1834  he  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  and  in  the  following  year 
was  chosen  to  be  one  of  its  Vice-Presidents.  In  1834 
another  distinction  came  to  him  which  he  valued  very 
highly — he  was  elected  a  corresponding  member  of  the 
Royal  Institute  of  France.  In  1835  he  received  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  from  the  University  of  Oxford. 
On  this  occasion  he  was  the  guest  of  Dr.  Burton,  the 
Professor  of  Divinity  at  Christ  Church,  and  he  mentions 
with  great  cordiality  his  introduction  to  Mr.  Keble. 

Those  were  happy  years.  The  fret  and  anxiety  which 
came,  with  the  great  Scotch  Church  controversy  had  not 
yet  begun.  And  the  good  as  well  as  eloquent  man  was 
in  the  fulness  of  his  powers,  with  troops  of  friends  and 
vast  opportunities  for  influencing  the  minds  of  others 
and  promoting  the  objects  of  Christian  utility  which  he 
had  at  heart.  Wherever  he  went  he  was  admired  by  all, 
and  beloved  by  those  who  knew  him  best.  What  a 
happy  impression  he  made  on  his  English  friends  we 
may  gather  from  Mr.  J.  J.  Gurney's  "Reminiscences." 
Dr.  Chalmers  paid  him  a  visit  at  Earlham,  near  Nor- 
wich, and  we  have  the  following  notes  : — 

^^  £ar//i(i;//,  'jf/i  Mouthy  24/Zr,  1833. — As  we  were  sitting 
in  the  drawing-room  rather  late  on  the  evening  of  the  i8th 
instant,  Dr.   Chalmers  entered  with  our  friend  Charles 


I04  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

Bridges,  Vicar  of  Long  Newton,  Suffolk,  as  his  com- 
panion. Dr.  Chalmers  is  a  man  peculiarly  susceptible 
of  being  pleased — looking  at  objects  which  surround  him 
through  a  favourable  medium. 

"  Chal.  '  I  have  been  travelling  through  Kent,  Essex, 
and  Suffolk,  and  now  through  Norfolk,  the  agricultural 
garden  of  England.  It  is  a  delightful  country — varied 
in  its  surface  and  clothed  in  greenness.  As  to  the 
moulding  and  statuary  of  the  scenery,  we  excel  you  in 
Scotland ;  but  when  I  look  over  the  fields  of  your  coun- 
try I  seem  to  be  no  longer  looking  through  my  naked 
eye,  but  through  an  eye-glass  tinged  with  green,  which 
throws  a  more  vivid  hue  over  nature  than  that  to  which 
I  am' accustomed.' 

"  On  the  following  morning  we  conversed  on  the 
subject  of  the  great  minds  wath  which  he  had  been 
brought  into  contact.  I  asked  him  who  was  the  most 
talented  person  with  whom  he  had  associated,  especially 
in  power  of  conversation.  He  said  Robert  Hall  was  the 
greatest  proficient  he  had  known  as  a  converser,  and 
spoke  in  high  terms  of  his  talents  and  of  his  preaching. 
'  But,'  said  he,  '  I  think  Foster  is  of  a  higher  order  of 
intellect;  he  fetches  his  thoughts  from  a  deeper  spring; 
he  is  no  great  talker,  and  he  writes  very  slowly ;  but  he 
moves  along  in  a  region  far  above  the  common  intel- 
lectual level.  I  am  sorry  to  say,  however,  that  he  is  dis- 
posed to  Radicalism.' 


VISITS   TO  ENGLAND  AND   TO  FRANCE.       I05 

*'  It  is  always  pleasant  to  watch  the  noble  expressions 

of  Dr.  Chalmers'  countenance;   but  he  is   often   very 

quiet  in  a  large  party.     I  never  saw  a  man  who  appeared 

y-  ko  be  more  destitute  of  vanity,  or  less  alive  to  any  wish 

to  be  brilliant. 


"The  more  we  became  familiarised  to  Dr.  Chalmers' 
company,  and  observed  the  remarkable  union  which  he 
presents  of  high  talent  and  comprehensive  thought  with 
an  almost  child-like  modesty  and  simplicity,  the  more  we 
admired  him  as  one  example  of  that  Divine  workman- 
ship which  so  much  fills  his  own  contemplations.  I  may 
also  add  that  the  more  we  became  acquainted  with  his 
thorough  amiability  the  more  we  loved  him. 

"I  must  not  conclude  without  remarking  that  our 
dear  and  honoured  friend  is  a  man  of  prayer." 

A  few  weeks  after  the  delivery  of  his  lectures  at  the 
Hanover  Square  Rooms,  Dr.  Chalmers  crossed  the 
Channel,  and  paid  his  first  and  only  visit  to  France. 
In  those  days  trips  to  Paris  were  not  easy  and  familiar 
as  now.  Chalmers  could  not  speak  French  ;  but  he  had 
good  English  friends  in  Paris  who  paid  him  much  atten- 
tion ;  and  he  preached  in  the  Taitbout  Chapel  one  of  his 
best  sermons,  on  ''  God  is  love,"  to  the  delight  and  even 
amazement  of  his  audience.  He  was  presented  to  M. 
Guizot,  and  as  that  statesman  "spoke  English  tolerably," 

8 


t 


1 06  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

they  talked  of  the  "conjunction  of  the  moral  and  the 
economical  elements"  as  necessary  to  the  solution  of 
great  social  problems.  Chalmers  never  wasted  time  on 
small  topics  if  he  could  find  a  man  fit  to  enter  on  great 
matters. 

It  is  pleasant  to  read  the  journal  which  he  kept  on  the 
continent,  and  to  see  how  fairly  and  kindly  he  looked  on 
new  aspects  of  society.  "  Much  pleased  with  the  beauty 
and  lightness  of  Paris.  .  .  .  How  much  more  leisurely 
everything  moves  here  than  in  London  !" 

"The  commonalty  all  well  dressed;  and  whatever  the 
real  profligacy  may  be,  they  have  all  the  aspect,  expres- 
sion, and  manner  of  a  most  moral,  orderly,  and  withal 
kindly  and  compassionate  people.  On  our  return  entered 
a  most  singular  cafe,  leading  to  a  garden,  in  the  midst  of 
which  was  a  sort  of  templar  erection,  making  altogether 
a  little  Vauxhall,  with  innumerable  parties  placed  on 
benches,  or  ranged  about  tables  in  the  Parisian  style  of 
conviviality.  We  had  fireworks  and  music,  to  those 
passages  of  which  that  were  most  responded  to  by  the 
auditors,  I  was  wholly  insensible.  There  were  at  least 
a  thousand  people  outside,  who  had  the  benefit  of  the 
exhibition  gratis,  those  inside  giving  tenpence  each.  I 
was  much  impressed  by  the  decorum  of  the  crowd,  their 
respectable  dress,  and  perfect  modesty  both  of  look  and 
manner.  I  have  never  in  a  single  instance  seen  the 
offensive  or  indecent  obtruded  on  our  notice  in  this  city." 


VISITS   TO   ENGLAND   AND    TO   FRANCE.      loy 

Perhaps  if  the  good  Doctor  had  understood  some  of 
the  much-applauded  songs,  he  would  not  have  sat  so 
complacently  in  the  cafe  garden ;  but  far  better  than  a 
suspicious  or  censorious  temper  was  his  genial  notice  of 
the  good  that  he  saw,  and  his  frank  recognition  of  the 
propriety  and  courtesy  of  manner  among  the  Parisians. 

Mr.  Erskine,  of  Linlathen,  was  at  this  time  in  the 
French  capital.  Dr.  Chalmers  had  already  conceived  a 
friendship  for  him,  and  found  that  spiritual  tone  and 
helpfulness  in  him  of  which  many  have  testified,  though 
he  never  accepted  what  was  peculiar  to  Mr.  Erskine  in 
theology.  They  agreed  to  make  a  short  tour  together  in 
the  provinces  of  France,  and  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  Due 
de  Broglie  at  his  chateau.  This  visit  opened  to  Dr. 
Chalmers  a  beautiful  interior  of  French  culture  and  piety. 
Madame  de  Broglie  was  an  earnest  evangelical  believer, 
and  with  her  the  two  Scottish  visitors  had  entire  sym- 
pathy. With  the  Duke,  Chalmers  talked  on  pauperism, 
the  French  law  of  succession,  taxation  on  land,  and 
similar  topics.  Several  years  before  he  had  expressed  in 
his  work  on  Political  Economy  a  very  strong  opinion  that 
France,  by  the  abolition  of  primogeniture,  had  "  entered 
on  a  sure  process  of  decay."  He  wished  for  "  a  splendid 
aristocracy  in  every  country,  and  a  gradation  of  ranks 
shelving  downwards  to  the  basement  of  society,"  With 
these  ideas  he  went  to  France.  The  Due  de  Broglie, 
however,  showed  him  that  the  old  nobility  of  that  country 


I08  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

had  never  spent  money  on  their  estates  like  the  same 
class  in  Great  Britain.  They  had  retired  to  their  country 
seats  in  order  to  economise,  and  had  spent  their  fortunes 
in  Paris.  He  also  showed  that  the  abolition  of  primo- 
geniture had  not  been  injurious  to  families,  and  that  the 
new  land  laws  had  spread  comfort,  brought  land  formerly 
neglected  into  cultivation,  and  increased  the  national 
wealth.  Chalmers  was  right  enough  in  his  prediction 
that  the  throne  of  the  citizen  king,  then  reigning,  could 
not  be  maintained  on  the  new  constitution  of  French 
society.  He  described  such  a  king  without  an  aristocracy 
as  "  an  unsupported  Maypole  in  the  midst  of  a  level 
population."  But  he  frankly  admits  that  the  observations 
which  he  was  able  to  make  on  his  provincial  tour,  and 
the  information  he  had  gathered  from  the  Due  de  Broglie 
and  others,  had  modified  his  judgment  of  the  probable 
social  and  financial  future  of  France.  "  My  opinion  of 
the  actual  state  of  property  in  France,  and  also  my  views 
of  its  eventual,  have  been  made  more  favourable." 


^ 


CHAPTER   VII. 

IN  PUBLIC  QLESTIONS  AND  AFFAIRS, 

(1829—1843.) 

SOON  after  Dr.  Chalmers  had  taken  up  his  residence 
in  Edinburgh,  the  question  of  the  political  emanci- 
pation of  Roman  Catholics  reached  the  stage  of  admis- 
sion within  the  circle  of  "  practical  politics."  It  became, 
according  to  modern  phrase,  a  burning  question,  and 
was  debated  in  all  parts  of  the  kingdom,  on  one  side 
with  exaggerated  expectations,  on  the  other  with  exagge- 
rated fears.  Sir  James  Mackintosh  wrote  from  London 
to  Dr.  Chalmers,  urging  him  to  publish  his  "  weighty 
opinion  "  on  the  matter.  In  reply,  though  he  did  not 
agree  to  "a  special  publication  on  the  subject,"  Chalmers 
expressed  his  willingness  to  take  part  in  a  public  meeting 
in  favour  of  the  emancipation.  "  I  have  never  had  but  one 
sentiment  on  the  subject  of  the  Catholic  disabilities,  and 
it  is  that  the  Protestant  cause  has  been  laid  by  them 
under  very  heavy  disadvantage,  and  that  we  shall  gain 


no  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

prodigiously  from  the  moment  that,  by  the  removal  ot 
them,  the  question  between  us  and  our  opponents  is 
reduced  to  a  pure  contest  between  truth  and  error.  .  .  . 
Nothing  has  more  impeded  the  progress  of  sound  and 
scriptural  Christianity  in  Ireland  than  the  unseemly 
alliance  between  such  Christianity  on  the  one  hand,  and 
intolerance  on  the  other."  Such  was  by  no  means  the 
prevailing  opinion  either  in  the  profession  to  which 
Chalmers  belonged,  or  in  the  political  party  with  which 
he  generally  agreed — for,  as  we  have  mentioned,  he  was 
a  Tory,  opposed  to  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832  ;  and  the 
warm  friends  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Emancipation  were 
Whigs — a  party  which  Chalmers  never  would  trust.  But 
he  formed  his  own  judgment,  and  obeyed  his  own  con- 
science, nor  could  he  ever  be  charged  with  surrendering 
to  party  *'  what  was  meant  for  mankind." 

A  memorable  public  meeting  was  held  in  Edinburgh 
in  March  1829,  in  support  of  the  Bill  which  Wellington 
and  Peel  had  tardily  introduced  into  Parliament.  Dr. 
Chalmers  was  on  the  platform  along  with  the  local  Whig 
celebrities,  Sir  J.  W.  Moncrieff  and  Mr.  Jeffrey  (after- 
wards known  as  Lord  Moncrieff  and  Lord  Jeffrey) ;  and 
after  they  had  spoken,  he  delivered  what  was  perhaps  the 
most  eloquent  and  effective  of  all  his  addresses.  Looking 
back  from  our  present  experience,  on  its  sanguine  antici- 
pations of  Protestantism  spreading  greatly  in  Ireland  so 
soon  as  it  should  be  cleared  of  all  appearance  of  injustice 


IN  PUBLIC   QUESTIONS  AND   AFFAIRS.      Ill 

and  intolerance,  we  see  that  they  were  far  too  sanguine. 
But  there  was  sound  sense  in  such  passages  as  the 
following  : — 

**  The  truth  is  that  these  disabilities  have  hung  as  a 
dead  weight  around  the  Protestant  cause  for  more  than  a 
century.  They  have  enlisted  in  opposition  to  it  some  of 
the  most  unconquerable  principles  of  nature;  resentment 
because  of  injury,  and  the  pride  of  adherence  to  a  suffer- 
ing cause.  They  have  transformed  the  whole  nature  of 
the  contest,  and  by  so  doing  they  have  rooted  and  given 
tenfold  obstinacy  to  error.  They  have  given  to  our  side 
the  hateful  aspect  of  tyranny ;  while  in  theirs  we  behold 
a  generous  and  high-minded  resistance  to  what  they  deem 
to  be  oppression." 

"  Reason,  and  Scripture,  and  Prayer — these  compose, 
or  ought  to  compose,  the  whole  armoury  of  Protestantism, 
and  it  is  by  them  alone  that  the  battles  of  the  faith  can 
be  successfully  fought.  It  is  since  the  admission  of 
intolerance,  that  unseemly  associate  within  our  ranks, 
that  the  cause  of  the  Reformation  has  come  down  from 
its  vantage-ground.  We  want  to  be  disencumbered  of 
this  weight,  and  restored  to  our  free  and  proper  energies." 

Throughout  the  whole  of  this  speech  Dr.  Chalmers  was 
extremely  animated,  and  roused  his  audience  to  a  white 
heat  of  enthusiasm.  The  newspapers  of  the  day  called  it 
a  "  tumult  of  admiration."  We  have  it  on  the  authority 
of  the  late  Dean  Ramsay,  that  "  our  most  distinguished 


113  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

Scottish  critic,  Lord  Jeffrey,  gave  it  as  his  decided 
opinion  that  never  had  eloquence  produced  a  greater 
effect  upon  a  popular  assembly,  and  that  he  could  not 
believe  more  had  ever  been  done  by  the  oratory  of 
Demosthenes,  Cicero,  Burke,  or  Sheridan." 

As  we  have  spoken  of  Dr.  Chalmers  as  a  Tory,  we  are 
bound  to  mention  that  not  on  the  Catholic  Emancipation 
question  only,  but  on  the  repeal  of  the  Tests  and  Corpo- 
ration Act,  in  1828,  he  took  the  Liberal  side  with  great 
decision;  and  his  objection  to  the  enfranchisement  of  the 
Ten  Pound  Householders  in  1832  was  not  grounded  on 
any  mistrust  of  "  the  common  people,"  for  whom  he  had 
deep  respect  and  sympathy,  but  arose  from  a  misgiving  that 
the  eyes  of  men  were  being  turned  from  the  real  moral 
foundations  of  social  improvement  to  a  mere  political 
panacea ;  and  also  from  a  fear  "  lest  the  Reform  Bill 
should  throw  the  legislative  power  into  the  hands  of  men 
of  business — already  full  of  all  kinds  of  occupation — to  the 
exclusion  of  men  who  have  leisure  for  deep  study  and  reflec- 
tion, and  are  therefore  able  to  cope  with  great  principles 
on  the  various  subjects  of  legislation."  This  at  all  events 
was  no  mere  obtuse  resistance  to  reform  and  progress. 

The  questions  which  chiefly  occupied  Dr.  Chalmers  as 
a  Churchman,  over  and  above  those  which  he  discussed 
as  a  Theological  Professor,  were  two  in  number.  The 
one  concerned  the  extension,  and  the  other  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  Church. 


7.V  PUBLIC   QUESTIONS   AND   AFFAIRS.      II3 

I.  T/ie  Extension  of  the  Church. — The  bent  of  Chal- 
mers, as  we  have  seen,  was  strongly  practical.  He  could 
sustain  an  elevated  argument  on  philosophical  and 
theological  abstractions;  but  his  thoughts  could  not  find 
a  terminus  in  these.  He  was  ever  musing  on  the  social, 
moral,  and  religious  welfare  of  the  people  at  large,  and 
instituting  agencies  or  advocating  measures  for  the 
gathering  of  "  the  population  "  locally  and  systematically 
under  the  purifying  and  elevating  power  of  the  gospel. 
Thus  he  was  unwearied  in  the  cause  of  church  extension 
and  home  missions.  As  early  as  the  year  181 7  he  had 
made  an  appeal  for  the  erection  of  twenty  additional 
churches  to  meet  the  growth  of  population  in  Glasgow. 
It  startled  the  city.  The  municipal  authorities  were  asked 
to  give  twenty,  and  they  gave  one — that  church  of  St. 
John's,  of  which  Chalmers  himself  took  charge.  A  few 
years  passed,  and  the  same  question  on  a  much  larger 
scale  took  hold  of  his  mind.  At  the  end  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  Scotland  had  between  900  and  1,000 
parish  churches  for  a  population  which  was  under  one 
million.  During  the  whole  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth,  only  sixty-two 
churches  had  been  added,  while  the  population  had 
more  than  doubled  itself.  So  much  for  the  enterprise 
of  the  Moderates  who  predominated  during  very  nearly 
the  whole  of  that  long  period.  At  last  the  General 
Assembly  appointed  a  committee  on  church  extension  ; 


114  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

but  very  little  was  effected  till,  in  the  year  1834,  Dr. 
Chalmers  was  named  as  chairman,  or  (as  the  Scotch  say) 
convener,  of  the  committee,  and  brought  all  his  energy 
and  influence  to  bear  upon  the  object.  He  began  by 
making  urgent  representations  to  Government,  and  to 
many  leading  politicians,  of  the  duty  of  the  nation  to 
provide  church  accommodation  for  its  own  increasing 
numbers.  At  first  some  encouragement  was  given,  but 
in  the  end  there  was  miserable  disappointment.  Nothing 
daunted,  however.  Dr.  Chalmers  appealed  to  the  people 
of  Scotland,  and  soon  gained  a  great  success.  In  the 
short  space  of  four  years  he  was  able  to  report  to  the 
General  Assembly  of  1838  that  nearly  200  new  churches 
had  been  built,  and  that  ^200,000  had  been  contributed 
towards  the  cost.  Before  he  retired  from  the  convener- 
ship,  in  1841,  he  had  been  the  means  of  adding  220  new 
churches  to  the  Scottish  Establishment.  To  reach  this 
result  he  had  made  a  tour  through  a  great  part  of  Scot- 
land, addressing  public  meetings,  and  speaking  at  public 
breakfasts  and  dinners  day  after  day.  It  entailed  on  him 
great  fatigue,  but  he  grudged  nothing  for  a  cause  he  loved 
so  well. 

But  while  these  new  churches  were  being  built,  a  course 
of  events  was  in  progress  which  was  soon  to  separate 
their  great  founder  from  the  fruit  of  his  labour.  A 
question  was  revived  which  had  in  former  days  roused 
strong  and  even  passionate  feeling  among  the  Scottish 


IN  PUBLIC   QUESTIONS  AND   AFFAIRS.      I15 

people,  viz.,  the  right  of  the  flock  to  have  the  choice  of 
the  pastor,  or  at  the  least  to  have  protection  against  the 
intrusion  of  a  pastor  whom  they  regarded  as  unsuitable. 
Out  of  the  agitation  of  this  question  rose  a  greater  one,  to 
which  Chalmers  had  always  been  keenly  alive.    It  was — 

II.  T/ie  Spiritual  Independe?tce  of  the  Church. — It  is 
not  desirable  to  narrate  the  development  and  treatment 
of  this  question  at  length.  And  it  would  be  inexcusal^le 
to  refer  to  the  matter  with  any  of  that  heated  feeling 
which  was  unavoidable  among  a  people  so  keen  and 
disputatious  as  the  Scotch  while  the  controversy  was 
being  waged,  or  even  when  it  was  recent  in  the  public 
memory.  But  without  a  brief  statement  an  important 
part  of  Chalmers'  public  life  cannot  be  understood. 

A  system  of  lay  patronage  to  parochial  cures  in  Scot- 
land was  introduced  and  legalised  in  the  reign  of  Queen 
Anne.  It  was  contrary  to  the  wish  of  the  Scottish 
people,  and  at  various  periods  caused  much  discontent, 
and  some  secessions  from  the  Church.  Again  and  again 
unacceptable  ministers  were  forced  upon  parishes,  at  the 
cost  of  much  scandal  and  irritation.  In  the  year  1834, 
when  the  Evangelical  party  had  recovered  their  long  lost 
preponderance  in  the  Church ,  the  General  Assembly  passed 
an  Act  giving  to  the  majority  of  male  communicants  in 

parish  the  power  of  a  negative,  or  veto,  on  a  presenta- 
tion. The  Church  did  not  presume  to  interfere  with  the 
rights  conferred  on  a  patron  by  Act  of  Parliament,  but 


J^, 


Il6  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

it  expressed  its  own  resolution  not  to  ordain  or  induct  on 
a  bare  presentation  from  the  patron,  if  the  majority  of 
the  Christian  people  in  the  parish  declared  that  such  a 
settlement  would  be  unacceptable  or  unprofitable  to  them. 
The  minority  in  the  General  Assembhes  of  that  period, 
commonly  called  the  Moderates — the  same  as  we  have 
already  seen  chilling  the  ecclesiastical  breath  of  St. 
Andrews  —  objected  to  this  as  virtually  annulling  the 
statutory  rights  of  patrons.  A  severe  and  protracted  con- 
troversy ensued;  public  meetings  were  held  in  all  parts 
of  Scotland  ;  the  Presbyteries  and  Synods  became  little 
battle-fields  of  party ;  and  pamphlet  followed  pamphlet 
with  keen  argument  and  sometimes  passionate  invective. 
The  one  party  shouted  for  the  rights  of  the  people ;  the 
other  insisted  on  the  rights  of  patrons,  and  ridiculed  the 
notion  of  sheep  sitting  in  judgment  on  their  shep- 
herd. As  the  vefo  came  into  operation — though  many 
patrons  took  care  not  to  irritate  the  public  feeling  of 
parishes,  and  their  presentees  were  quietly  accepted — 
some  cases  were  disputed,  and  serious  trouble  arose. 
When  the  Evangelicals  were  overruled  they  appealed  to 
the  Ecclesiastical  Courts.  When  the  Moderates  were 
overruled,  they  appealed,  or  they  favoured  the  appeal  of 
patron  and  presentee,  to  the  Courts  of  civil  jurisdiction. 
The  General  Assembly  sustained  the  operation  of  the 
TJefo,  and  enforced  its  own  jurisdiction,  going  so  far  as  to 
depose  the  nicajority  of  a  Presbytery  which  had  ordained 


IN  PUBLIC   QUESTIONS   AND   AFFAIRS.      II7 

and  inducted  a  vetoed  presentee.  In  so  doing,  the 
Church  did  not  deny  that  there  were  civil  rights  and 
interests  connected  with  the  position  of  parish  minister 
which  the  patron  had  a  right  to  confer  on  his  presentee  ; 
and  it  acknowledged  that  the  Civil  Courts  might  deal  with 
these,  and  the  State  might  give  or  withhold  them  as  it 
thought  fit;  but  ordination  was  a  spiritual  act,  and  induc- 
tion an  ecclesiastical  regulation,  which  lay  entirely  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Church,  and  concerning  which 
the  civil  power  was  not  competent  to  give  instructions 
or  orders.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Court  of  Session,  in 
enforcing  the  civil  rights  of  patrons  and  presentees, 
required  that  the  Church  should  take  the  usual  steps  to 
place  them  in  the  enjoyment  of  those  rights;  and  the 
House  of  Lords,  on  appeal,  pronounced  the  ve/o  law  of 
the  General  Assembly  u//ra  vires  of  that  body,  and  to  be 
treated  as  null  and  void. 

The  Church  of  Scotland  was  not  prepared  to  submit 
in  such  a  matter  even  to  the  House  of  Lords.  A  cry  rose 
against  her — *'  Obey  the  law  of  the  land  ! "  The  answer 
substantially  was — that  this  was  not  a  question  of  "  the 
land,"  nor  a  matter  to  which  law  made  by  Parliament  and 
construed  by  civil  judges  had  any  application.  English 
rjaders  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  Church  of  Scotland 
always  had  a  quite  different  constitution  from  the  Church 
of  England.  It  never  acknowledged  the  royal  supremacy 
in  matters  ecclesiastical,   or  took  authority    for  any   of 


Il8  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

its  actions  from  Crown  and  Parliament.  It  went  into 
union  with  the  State  on  the  ground  of  a  collateral  juris- 
diction, not  of  subordination  or  submission.  No  doubt 
it  might  be  difficult,  in  cases  where  both  spiritual  and 
civil  elements  were  combined,  to  assign  to  each  jurisdic- 
tion what  belonged  to  it ;  but  it  was  held  sufficient  to  lay 
down  the  broad  axiom  that  spiritual  matters  are  those 
which  require  authority  from  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
according  to  His  Word,  and  civil  are  those  which 
require  for  their  regulation  nothing  more  than  authority 
from  the  supreme  civil  ruler,  which  authority,  however, 
is  to  be  honoured  as  coming  from  God  for  the  good  of 
the  subjects  or  citizens ;  and,  further,  that  in  the  com- 
bination and  possible  complication  of  these,  each  Court  of 
jurisdiction  must  determine  its  own  part  of  the  case,  and 
use  its  proper  means  and  weapons  for  carrying  out  its 
behests.  Thus  the  State  could  not  commit  the  mistake 
of  appointing  an  ordination  or  regulating  a  communion, 
because  no  officer  of  the  State,  though  armed  with  all 
the  "  power  of  the  sword,"  can  ordain  to  office  in  the 
Church,  or  either  give  or  withhold  communion;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  Church  could  not  commit  the  mistake 
of  determining  who  shall  occupy  the  manse  or  draw 
that  stipend  under  Act  of  Parliament,  because  no  officer 
of  the  Church  with  ever  so  much  spiritual  power  or 
dignity  can  determine  questions  of  houses,  and  the  right 
to  silver  and  gold. 


IN  PUBLIC   QUESTIONS  AND   AFFAIRS,      II9 

It  is  not  necessary  at  this  time  of  day  to  discuss  the 
temper  or  discretion  on  either  side  with  which  the  Scottish 
Ten  Years'  Conflict  (1833 — 1843)  was  waged.  As  colH- 
sions  between  the  spiritual  and  civil  authorities  multiplied, 
and  were  embittered  by  the  circumstance  that  an  influ- 
ential minority  in  the  Church  took  all  along  the  side  of 
the  State,  it  became  evident  that  nothing  would  settle  the 
difficulty  but  an  Act  of  Parliament  which  should  recognise 
the  people's  vefo  as  from  the  side  of  the  State,  and  so 
legalise  the  limitation  to  this  extent  of  the  system  of 
patronage.  Dr.  Chalmers,  who,  though  not  the  most 
active  of  the  Church  leaders  of  the  period,  was  the  most 
influential,  spent  much  of  his  time  in  correspondence 
and  interviews  with  the  leaders  of  both  the  great  parties  in 
the  State,  and  with  prominent  Members  of  Parliament,  in 
the  hope  of  bringing  about  a  solution  of  the  whole  ques- 
tion which  should  be  respectful  to  the  civil  power,  and  at 
the  same  time  satisfactory  to  the  Church.  He  laboured 
hard  to  drive  his  ideas  into  Viscount  Melbourne,  the 
Earl  of  Aberdeen,  Lord  John  Russell,  Lord  Brougham, 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  Sir  James  Graham.  But  Lord 
Aberdeen,  who  as  a  Scotchman  and  an  Elder  of 
the  Church  knew  the  subject  best,  was,  unfortunately, 
opposed  to  the  extension  of  popular  rights;  and  the 
Englishmen  appealed  to  never  could  extricate  themselves 
from  the  English  traditional  lines  of  thought ;  never 
could  regard  it  as  a  feasible  or  creditable  thing,  that  an 


I20  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

Established  Church  should  exercise  a  spiritual  jurisdiction 
uncontrolled  by  the  Crown  and  by  the  courts  of  law. 
An  effort  was  made  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll  (father  of  the 
present  Duke)  to  pass  a  measure  through  Parliament 
which  would  have  gone  as  far  as  the  vefo  law  of  the 
Church,  and  a  little  farther  ;  but  it  proved  abortive.  To 
Dr.  Chalmers  it  was  peculiarly  disappointing  to  find  the 
Conservative  chiefs,  Peel,  Aberdeen,  and  Graham,  who 
were  then  in  power,  giving  heed  and  sympathy  to  the 
Moderate  party,  and  turning  away  from  his  advice  as 
from  that  of  some  excited  fanatic.  At  last,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1840,  he  shook  off  the  dust  of  his  feet  against 
them,  publicly  declaring  "the  blasting  of  all  my  fondest 
hopes  for  the  good  and  peace  of  our  Church,  in  my 
correspondence  with  public  and  parliamentary  men."  In 
short,  the  experience  which  Chalmers  had  of  the  Whigs 
in  regard  to  the  extension  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  he 
now  had  of  the  Conservatives  in  regard  to  its  spiritual 
independence.  And  the  issue  was  vanity  and  vexation 
of  spirit.  In  the  circumstances  he  made  a  rather 
peculiar  amende  to  the  Whigs. 

"After  all,  I  now  feel  that  I  owe  an  act  of  justice 
to  the  Whigs.  I  understand  justice  in  the  same  sense 
as  equity  (cEquitas)^  and  I  am  now  bound  to  say  that 
if  on  the  question  of  Church  Endowments  I  have 
been  grievously  disappointed  by  the  one  party,  on 
the  question  of  Church  Independence  I  have  been  as 


IN  PUBLIC   QUESTIONS  AND   AFFAIRS.       121 

grievously  disappointed  by  the  other.  Of  course  I  speak 
on  the  basis  of  a  very  limited  induction ;  but  as 
far  as  the  findings  of  my  own  personal  observation  are 
concerned,  I  should  say  of  the  former,  that  they  seem  to 
have  no  great  value  for  a  Church  Establishment  at  all ; 
and  of  the  latter,  that  their  great  value  for  a  Church 
Establishment  seems  to  be  more  for  it  as  an  engine  of 
State  than  as  an  instrument  of  Christian  usefulness.  The 
difference  lies  in  having  no  principle,  or  in  having  a 
principle  that  is  wrong.  In  either  way  t"hey  are  equally 
useless,  and  may  prove  equally  hurtful  to  the  Church ; 
and  though  the  acknowledgment  I  now  make  to  the 
Whigs  be  a  somewhat  ludicrous  one,  if  viewed  in  the 
character  of  a  peace-offering,  I  am  nevertheless  bound  to 
declare  that,  for  aught  like  Church  purposes,  I  have  found 
the  Conservatives  to  be  just  as  bad  as  themselves.  It  is 
for  the  Church  now  to  renounce  all  dependence  upon 
men,  and,  persevering  in  the  high  walk  of  duty  on  which 
she  has  entered,  to  prosecute  her  own  objects  on  her  own 
principles,  leaving  each  party  in  the  State  to  act  as  they 
may." 

Negotiations,  however,  went  on ;  and  the  shower  of 
pamphlets  and  speeches  ceased  not.  It  is  really  wonder- 
ful that  an  agreement  was  not  reached,  for  the  parties 
were  at  last  divided  only  by  the  question  whether  a 
z'e/o  without  reasons  or  a  veto  with  reasons  should  be 
legalised.     Dr.  Chalmers  insisted  on  the  former,  arguing 

9 


122  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

that  there  might  be  serious  objections  to  a  minister 
which  could  not  very  well  be  specified  and  proved 
under  a  statute,  and  that,  if  a  presentee  were  to  be  re- 
jected at  all,  it  would  be  more  just  and  more  merciful 
to  him  to  interpose  a  simple  ve^o  than  to  publish  his 
defects  in  detail  to  the  whole  country,  and  that  under 
an  inducement  to  make  the  worst  of  them.  On  the 
other  side.  Lord  Aberdeen  protested  that  a  vefo  without 
reasons  assigned  by  the  people,  and  judged  by  the  Pres- 
bytery, might  be  the  dictate  of  mere  prejudice  or  caprice, 
and  ought  not  to  be  listened  to.  Lord  Aberdeen  had 
his  way.  But  it  is  a  significant  fact  that,  after  a  thirty 
years'  trial  of  the  system  which  he  introduced,  not  only 
has  the  vefo  with  reasons  been  given  up  as  a  nuisance, 
but  the  whole  system  of  patronage  in  Scotland  has  been 
abolished  by  Parliament  under  the  advice  of  a  Conserva- 
tive Government.  In  the  Church  of  Scotland  to-day 
there  is  popular  election  of  pastors,  and  the  Church 
Courts  have  a  guarantee  of  undisturbed  jurisdiction  in 
all  questions  afi'ecting  the  settlement  of  parochial  minis- 
ters. Nor  does  the  Act  of  Parliament  pretend  to  grant 
this  jurisdiction.  It  recognises  it  as  inherent  in  the 
Church. 

But  the  things  which  are  now  seen  to  be  safe  and  wise 
were  held  by  the  Moderates  of  Scotland  and  "  the  public 
and  parliamentary  men "  of  England  to  be  dangerous 
and  even  absurd  in  the  years  to  which  we  refer;  and 


IN  PUBLIC   QUESTIONS  AND   AFFAIRS.       I23 

Dr.  Chalmers  foresaw,  quite  eighteen  months  before 
the  event,  that  the  accumulating  difficulties  would  end 
in  a  prodigious  crash.  We  hear  a  good  deal  at  this 
crisis  of  Sir  George  Sinclair,  M.P.  for  Caithness.  He 
was  a  Conservative  of  the  type  of  Sir  Robert  Inglis, 
devoted  to  Church  and  State  and  the  Protestant  Con- 
stitution. He  had  been  active  in  bringing  Chalmers  to 
London  to  lecture  on  "  Religious  Establishments "  at 
the  Hanover  Square  Rooms ;  and  he  was  now  most 
anxious  to  prevent  disaster  to  the  Church  of  Scotland. 
But  we  find  Chalmers  writing  to  him  in  September, 
1841,  in  terms  that  foreshadowed  very  serious  issues: 

"  I  reserve  myself  for  one  emergency.  Should  there 
be  a  disruption  of  the  Church,  I  shall  feel  it  my  duty 
to  help  forward  the  operations  of  a  great  home  mission, 
which  I  have  no  doubt  could  take  full  possession  of  the 
country  in  a  very  few  months.  And,  looking  to  the 
Christian  interests  of  Scotland,  I  believe  that  more  good 
could  be  done  through  such  an  instrumentality  than  by 
an  Established  Church  exposed  to  such  interferences  as 
those  of  the  Court  of  Session  for  the  last  few  years." 

It  is  said  that  when  a  friend  once  asked  Chalmers 
what  he  supposed  he  had  been  intended  for  by  nature 
he  promptly  answered,  "amihtary  engineer."  Perhaps 
he  was  right.  His  mathematical  powers,  his  faculty  for 
seeing  the  true  pivot  of  a  position,  his  forethought  and 
his  skill  in  organisation,  would   have  served   him  well 


;-+ 


124  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

in  such  a  capacity.  The  grace  of  God  led  him  into 
a  higher  warfare,  and  he  certainly  was  a  great  moral 
engineer.  Bat  he  was  more.  He  was  fitted  to  lead 
men  by  his  strength  of  purpose,  and  his  rare  power  of 
winning  confidence  and  inspiring  enthusiasm.  Nor  did 
his  practical  foresight  ever  desert  him.  As  a  competent 
leader  of  an  army  takes  thought  for  supplies  before 
making  a  move,  so  did  Chalmers,  before  venturing  on  a 
move  which  he  foresaw  to  be,  in  all  likelihood,  inevitable, 
take  thought  for  the  commissariat  of  a  disestablished 
clergy.  While  others  were  still  negotiating  and  pam- 
phleteering, in  November,  1841,  he  wrote  again  to  Sir 
George  Sinclair:  "I  have  been  studying  a  good  deal 
the  economy  of  our  non-Erastian  Church  when  severed 
from  the  State  and  its  endowments  —  an  event  which 
I  would  do  much  to  avert,  but  which,  if  inevitable, 
we  ought  to  be  prepared  for.  I  do  not  participate  in 
your  fears  of  an  extinction,  even  for  our  most  remote 
parishes.  And  the  noble  resolution  of  the  town  minis- 
ters to  share  equally  with  their  country  brethren,  from 
a  common  fund  raised  for  the  general  behoof  of  the 
ejected  ministers,  has  greatly  brightened  my  anticipations 
of  a  great  and  glorious  result,  should  the  Government 
cast  us  off."  Here  was  the  suggestion  of  that  great  Sus- 
tentation  Fund,  on  which  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland 
was  afterwards  launched,  and  on  which  her  ministry  is 
supported  to  this  day.     If  there  had  been  a  Chalmers  to 


IN  PUBLIC   QUESTIONS  AND   AFFAIRS.       125 

devise  in  the  same  manner  for  the  ejected  clergy  of 
England  in  the  year  1662,  as  well  as  to  lead  them  out 
in  a  close  phalanx,  how  different  might  the  history  of 
Nonconformity  have  been  !  How  impossible  it  would 
have  been  for  an  Establishment,  however  powerful,  or  a 
Parhament  however  bigoted,  to  treat  a  Nonconformist 
Church  diffused  all  over  England,  but  bound  together  by 
a  common  faith,  common  polity,  and  common  finance, 
as  the  desultory  Dissenting  communities  were  treated  for 
nearly  two  centuries  ! 

Sir  George  Sinclair,  regarding  with  repugnance  that 
conclusion  to  which  Dr.  Chalmers  not  obscurely  pointed, 
seems  to  have  reproached  him  with  inconsistency,  re- 
ferring to  his  former  eloquent  advocacy  of  the  union  of 
Church  and  State.  We  have  already  pointed  out  the 
qualifications  with  which  Chalmers  had  accompanied 
that  advocacy  in  the  Hanover  Square  lectures ;  but  as 
this  is  a  point  on  which  he  has  often  been  misjudged,  we 
think  it  well  to  give  his  own  reply : 

"Edinburgh,  December  4^/1,  1841. 

"  My  dear  Sir  George, —  ...  I  conclude 
with  noticing  as  briefly  as  possible  your  remarks  on 
my  consistency.  You  speak  of  my  former  avowed  pre- 
ference for  a  National  Establishment,  reminding  me  of 
what  you  call  my  own  theory.  Now,  in  my  London 
lectures,  in  my  Church  Extension  addresses,  in  all  my 
controversies   with    the   Voluntaries,   in    my  numerous 


126  THOMAS  CHALMERS. 

writings  for  twenty  years  back,  the  spiritual  independence 
of  the  Church  has  been  ever  brought  prominently  for- 
ward as  an  indispensable  part  of  that  theory,  and  I  have 
uniformly  stated  that  the  least  violation  of  that  inde- 
pendence in  return  for  a  State  endowment  was  enough 
to  convert  a  Church  Establishment  into  a  moral 
nuisance.  It  is  a  little  too  much  that,  after  the  Con- 
servatives had  accepted  with  thankfulness  my  defence  of 
National  Establishments,  they  should  now  propose  to 
take  away  from  me  the  benefit  of  their  main  vindication ; 
or  think  that  an  advocacy  given  to  a  National  Church, 
solely  for  the  sake  of  its  religious  and  moral  benefits  to 
the  population,  should  still  be  continued,  after  they  shall 
have  converted  it  from  an  engine  of  Christian  usefulness 
into  a  mere  congeries  of  offices,  by  which  to  uphold  the 
influence  of  patrons  and  subserve  the  politics  or  the 
views  of  a  worthless  partisanship. 

"  I  shall  ever  regret  the  necessity  of  a  separation  from 
the  State.  But  if  driven  to  it  by  principle,  it  is  a  sacri- 
fice which  must  and  ought  to  be  made.  I  say  so,  not 
in  the  spirit  of  menace,  or  for  the  purpose  of  terrifying 
bull-headed  Toryism  out  of  any  of  its  inveteracies,  but 
simply  to  let  you  know  that  I  for  one  shall  feel  it  my 
duty  to  draw  both  on  the  middle  and  lower  ranks  in- 
definitely, in  order  to  repair,  and  I  confidently  hope  to 
overpass,  the  mischief  which  I  fear  that  our  enemies,  in 
the  obstinacy  of  their  miserable  blindness,  are  preparing 


IN  PUBLIC   QUESTIONS  AND   AFFAIRS.       12/ 

for  our  land. — Ever  believe  me,  my   dear  Sir  George, 
yours  with  great  esteem  and  regard, 

"Thomas  Chalmers." 
It  is  often  said  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  broke 
up,  or  to  express  it  otherwise,  was  deserted  by  many 
of  its  sons,  on  a  question  of  the  popular  election  of 
^i-ministers.  But  Dr.  Clialmers  and  his  coadjutors  never 
admitted  this.  Not  the  most  extreme  man  among  them 
would  have  regarded  such  a  matter  as  justifying  a  pro- 
ceeding so  grave  in  its  character  and  issues.  Whether 
right  or  wrong  in  their  action,  they  are  at  all  events 
entitled  to  the  common  justice  of  having  the  grounds 
which  they  themselves  gave  for  their  action  recognised 
and  duly  weighed.  They  said  that  they  could  not  with 
— H  a  good  conscience  retain  their  position,  if  the  spiritual 
independence  of  the  Church  were  to  be  invaded  or 
denied.  The  Claim  of  Rights  which  was  prepared  by 
the  late  Mr.  Alexander  Dunlop,  M.P.,  and  which  was 
adopted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  1842,  dealt  entirely 
with  the  question  of  the  Church's  "  Co-ordinate  Juris- 
diction," and  the  securities  for  such  jurisdiction  provided 
in  the  Constitution  and  the  Statute  Book  of  Scotland. 
Dr.  Chalmers  expressed  the  opinion  that  this  was  the 
view  of  the  Church's  Constitution  which  ought  to  be 
pleaded  in  England  and  before  Parliament ;  the  principle 
of  the  non-intrusion  of  unacceptable  presentees,  or  the 
adjustment  of  Church  patronage  being  rather  of  a  local 


128  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

character,  and  giving  to  a  great  cause  "  a  certain  cast  of 
provincial  littleness."  But  here,  perhaps,  he  was  mis- 
taken. The  English  mind  seems  to  have  misgivings  about 
large  views  and  sweeping  principles,  and  feels  for  some 
reasonable  thing  to  do,  neither  great  nor  small — "  a  step 
in  the  right  direction,"  and  no  more  at  one  time.  What  it 
instinctively  approves  is  a  compromise  between  opposing 
claims,  or  a  medium  between  decided  positions  which  it 
calls  extremes.  The  claim  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  was 
too  thorough  and  uncompromising  to  have  much  chance 
of  favour  with  English  public  men.  Moreover,  Mr.  Dun- 
lop  was  correct  in  his  anticipation,  that  the  claim  to  be 
independent  of  the  State  in  things  spiritual,  though  the 
fundamental  matter  in  the  case  for  the  Church,  was  least 
of  all  likely  to  be  appreciated  or  admitted  in  England, 
where  the  Scottish  conception  of  the  relations  of  Church 
and  State  could  never  make  itself  known.  He  wrote  to 
Dr.  Chalmers  :  "  I  agree  with  you  in  the  propriety  of 
putting  the  great  question  as  to  our  jurisdiction  in  the 
forefront  of  the  battle— or,  indeed,  making  it  the  battle 
— although  my  experience  leads  me  to  an  opposite  con- 
clusion from  you  as  to  the  resistance  to  be  given  to  it. 
So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  judge  of  the  sentiments 
and  feelings  of  statesmen,  I  think  their  hostility  to  the 
Church's  independence  is  far  more  intense  and  inveterate 
than  their  hostility  to  the  people  having  a  voice."  So  it 
soon  proved.     Sir  James  Graham  pronounced  the  idea  of 


IN  PUBLIC   QUESTIONS  AND   AFFAIRS.       I29 

two  co-ordinate  authorities  "  unjust  and  unreasonable." 
Lord  John  Russell  could  not  conceive  of  its  practical 
realisation.  Sir  Robert  Peel  declared  it  to  be  anoma- 
lous, absurd,  impossible. 

The  British  Government  and  Parliament  therefore 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  representations  and  complaints 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Those  who  had  by  their 
majorities  in  successive  General  Assemblies  directed  the 
course  of  the  Church  saw  that  this  conflict  must  end. 
In  their  view  the  State,  by  refusing  redress,  and  allowing 
interference  with  the  spiritual  power  of  the  Church, 
violated  the  conditions  on  which  alone  they  could  accept 
ecclesiastical  establishment,  and  so  they  prepared  to 
break  away,  not,  as  they  considered,  from  their  mother 
Church,  but  from  the  Establishment  which  the  State 
had  given,  and  to  which  the  State  now  seemed  to  attach 
obligations  which  the  Church  ought  not  to  undertake. 
Accordingly,  the  spring  of  the  year  1843  saw  the  eccle- 
siastical life  of  Scotland  in  a  prodigious  turmoil.  In 
November  of  the  previous  year  a  Convocation  had  been 
held  in  Edinburgh,  under  the  presidency  of  Dr.  Chal- 
mers, at  which  the  Evangelical  clergy  in  hundreds 
pledged  themselves  "  to  tender  the  resignation  of  their 
civil  advantages  which  they  can  no  longer  hold  in  con- 
sistency with  the  free  and  full  exercise  of  their  spiritual 
functions,  and  to  cast  themselves  on  such  provision  as 
God  in    His  providence  may  afford;    maintaining   still 


130  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

uncompromised  the  principle  of  a  right  scriptural  con- 
nection between  the  Church  and  the  State,  and  solemnly 
entering  their  protest  against  the  judgments  of  which 
they  complain,  as  in  their  decided  opinion  altogether 
contrary  to  what  has  ever  hitherto  been  understood  to 
be  the  law  and  constitution  of  this  country."  It  is  the 
Scotch  custom  to  open  Synods  and  General  Assemblies 
with  a  sermon.  The  Convocation  of  1842  was  so  opened 
by  Dr.  Chalmers,  who  cheered  the  perplexed  fathers 
and  brethren  by  announcing  as  his  text,  "Unto  the 
upright  there  ariseth  light  in  the  darkness  "  (Psa.  cxii.  4).  ^n" 
Another  great  service  which  he  rendered  was  to  deliver 
to  the  Convocation  an  address  on  the  support  of  a  dis- 
established ministry,  which  showed  in  a  high  degree 
the  practical  sagacity  of  his  mind,  for  it  sketched  out 
the  constitution  and  operation  of  that  Central  Fund,  to 
which  we  have  already  seen  him  pointing  in  his  corre- 
spondence with  Sir  George  Sinclair,  and  which  remains 
to  this  day  one  of  the  best  possible  monuments  of  Dr. 
Chalmers. 

Through  the  months  of  winter  and  spring  the  agita- 
tion spread  into  every  corner  of  Scotland.  A  last  effort 
for  the  Church  made,  in  the  House  of  Commons  by 
Mr.  Fox  Maule  (afterwards  Lord  Panmure,  and  Earl  of 
Dalhousie),  with  the  support  of  good  and  able  men, 
proved  unsuccessful.  It  was  remarked,  however,  that 
the  members  for  Scotland  supported  Mr.  Fox  Maule's 


IN  PUBLIC   QUESTIONS   AND   AFFAIRS.       I3I 

motion  in  the  proportion  of  more  than  two  to  one.  Home 
Rule  would  have  prevented  the  impending  catastrophe  ; 
but  the  English  members  of  the  House,  who  could  not 
understand  the  case,  outvoted  the  Scottish  members  who 
could  and  did.  There  was  now  a  clear  issue  before  all 
parties.  Dr.  Chalmers  and  his  friends  were  not  the 
men  to  resist  the  courts  of  law  and  cling  to  their  emolu- 
ments, exclaiming  that  to  punish  them  for  breach  of  law 
would  be  persecution  for  conscience'  sake.  They  showed 
no  bad  example  of  disrespect  to  judges  and  tribunals ; 
but,  to  save  further  trouble,  calmly  and  deliberately  with- 
drew from  a  position  which  had  become  for  men  with 
their  views  of  duty  quite  untenable.  It  was  on  the  day 
appointed  for  the  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly, 
1 8th  May,  1843,  that  this  step  was  taken  by  the  Evan- 
gelical party,  or  at  all  events  by  the  more  decided  portion 
of  that  party. 

We  do  not  presume  to  blame  those  who  did  not 
follow  Dr.  Welsh  and  Dr.  Chalmers  on  that  famous  day. 
It  was  a  difficult  time,  and  good  men  might  see  their 
duty  differently.  To  ascribe  every  man's  conduct  who 
did  not  "  go  out "  to  selfishness  or  fear,  would  be  mon- 
strously unfair.  Indeed,  it  is  obvious  that  it  required  as 
much  courage  in  Dr.  Norman  IMcLeod  to  resist  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  period,  and  remain  in  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  in  order  to  heal  and  raise  her  up  after  such  a 
heavy   blow,    as    it    required    in    Dr.    Candlish   or   Dr. 


t 


132  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

Guthrie  to  pass  out  with  flags  flying  amidst  applauding 
crowds.  But  the  harsh  comments  and  taunts  of  that 
period  are  happily  forgotten  now. 

We  do  not  mean  that  flags  literally  waved,  but  popular 
admiration  swelled  around  the  long  procession  of  minis- 
ters and  elders  who,  after  laying  their  protest  on  the 
table  of  the  General  Assembly,  filed  out  of  St.  Andrew's 
Church  in  Edinburgh,  and  marched  down  one  of  the 
long  straight  streets  to  the  great  hall  prepared  for  them 
at  Tanfield.  Tears  of  joy  flowed  at  such  a  spectacle  of 
high-principled  fidelity  to  conscientious  convictions  of 
duty.  In  the  van  came  the  sturdy  figure  and  lion-like 
face  of  Chalmers ;  and  when  the  fathers  and  brethren 
were  gathered  into  their  new  hall,  surrounded  by  an 
ardent  multitude  that  not  only  filled  every  corner,  but 
got  on  the  roof  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  scene  through 
skylight  windows,  it  was  Thomas  Chalmers  who,  amidst 
enthusiastic  acclamations,  was  placed  in  the  chair  as 
Moderator  of  the  First  General  Assembly  of  the  Free 
Protesting  Church  of  Scotland. 

Even  in  such  a  scene,  and  at  such  a  moment,  his 
conservative  instinct  did  not  leave  him ;  for  in  his  open- 
ing address,  or  manifesto,  the  Moderator  took  care  to 
announce  that  the  Free  Church  objected,  not  to  the 
union  of  Church  and  State,  but  to  the  subjection  of  one 
of  them  to  the  other.  "  Though  we  quit  the  Establish- 
ment, we   go   out  on  the  Establishment  principle;  we 


IN  PUBLIC   QUESTIONS   AND   AFFAIRS.       I33 

quit  a  vitiated  Establishment,  but  would  rejoice  in  re- 
turning to  a  pure  one.  To  express  it  otherwise  :  we  are 
the  advocates  of  a  national  recognition  and  national 
support  of  religion,  and  we  are  not  Voluntaries." 

Chalmers  was  too  thoughtful  a  man  not  to  be  aware 
of  the  grave  responsibility  involved  in  the  step  which 
he  had  taken,  and  which  for  him  and  for  those  around 
him  was  really  irrevocable.  And  the  whole  tone  of  his 
mind  was  opposed  to  such  a  disturbance  of  the  eccle- 
siastical constitution  of  his  country.  It  came  upon  him 
with  disappointment  of  hopes  and  reversal  of  cherished 
plans.  He  had  a  reverence  for  the  traditional  and  here- 
ditary ;  and  this  was  a  setting  up  of  new  things  with  no 
history.  He  had  no  confidence  in  voluntaryism,  except 
as  a  useful  auxiliary ;  and  here  was  the  greatest  experi- 
ment ever  made  on  a  voluntary  system.  And  then  he 
was  a  man  who  shrank  from  the  sectarian  temper  of 
peitinacity  for  points  and  crotchets,  who  loved  to  cherish 
a  large  consciousness  of  Christian  love  and  life,  and 
longed  to  gather  separated  brethren  into  a  compre- 
hensive fellowship ;  while  here  was  the  origination 
of  a  new  division,  accompanied,  unfortunately,  by  a 
bitterness  of  feeling  which  entered  into  social  and  family 
circles,  and  was  sure  to  mark  itself  painfully  on  the 
his:ory  of  Scotland  for  many  a  year  to  come.  He  had 
no  ambition  to  gratify  ;  he  had  no  revolutionary  im- 
pulse   to  follow ;  and   he  was  no  weak  or  easy  person 


134  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

whom  others  could  lead  at  their  pleasure.  He  was  a 
large-hearted,  pious,  patriotic  man.  It  is  not  possible  to 
account  for  the  course  he  took  with  such  decision, 
except  on  the  ground  of  his  overpowering  conviction  of 
conscience,  that  the  principle  of  the  liberty  of  the  Church 
to  obey  Christ  and  administer  things  that  are  sacred 
under  His  authority,  without  interference  from  any 
quarter  which  is  merely  civil  and  non- spiritual,  was,  in 
itself  and  in  its  issues,  of  such  moment  as  to  justify 
for  its  vindication  any  and  every  sacrifice.  Men  may 
say,  if  they  will,  that  Chalmers  exaggerated  the  matter  to 
himself  and  others  ;  that  the  principle  in  question  was 
not  so  much  implicated  as  he  supposed  it  to  be ;  or  that, 
while  good  in  theory,  it  never  can  be  practically  worked 
out  on  the  lines  which  he  would  have  sketched.  All 
this  is  fair  matter  of  debate ;  but  of  his  integrity  of  pur- 
pose, and  splendid  loyalty  to  his  conscience,  no  one  will 
breathe  a  doubt. 

'*  Such  men  are  raised  to  station  and  command, 
When  Providence  means  mercy  to  a  land. 
He  speaks  and  they  appear  :  to  Him  they  owe 
Skill  to  direct,  and  strength  to  strike  the  blow  j 
To  manage  with  address,  to  seize  with  power 
The  crisis  of  a  dark,  decisive  hour." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

7 HE  CLOSING  YEARS, 
(1843 -1847.) 

THE  position  of  Dr.  Chalmers  was  affected  by  the 
great  ecclesiastical  event  of  1843,  t)ut  his  occu- 
pation was  not  changed.  Surrendering  his  Professor- 
ship in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  he  became  Prin- 
cipal of  the  new  College  which  the  Free  Church  forth- 
with instituted,  and  Primarius  Professor  of  Divinity. 
He  did  not  live  long  enough  to  teach  in  the  handsome 
building  which  is  now  so  conspicuous  on  "the  mound," 
and  strikes  the  eye  of  every  visitor  to  the  Scottish 
capital,  for  it  was  not  opened  till  the  year  1850.  The 
professors  and  students  at  first  met  in  a  "hired  house," 
No.  80,  George's  Street ;  and  there,  on  the  ground  floor, 
which  was  large  enough  to  admit  an  audience  of  about 
two  hundred,  the  now  venerable  Chalmers  delivered  his 
lectures  with  unabated  vigour.  Besides  the  regular  stu- 
dents, a  considerable  body  of  amateurs  attended  the 
class,  and  every  seat  was  occupied. 


136  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

One  who  was  a  member  of  the  class  in  the  year  1845 
has  fm-nished  to  us  the  following  reminiscences  : — 

"  The  buzz  of  conversation  at  once  ceased  when  we 
saw  the  venerable  white  head  appearing,  and  the  firm 
form  brushing  the  flying  gown  through  the  crowd  in  the 
narrow  passages.  Swiftly  the  desk  was  reached,  the 
portfolio  opened,  and  with  eyes  open  towards  heaven  the 
,J^  old  man  eloquent  was  pouring  out  one  of  his  brief,  extra- 
ordinary opening  prayers.  He  was  not  master  of  great 
variety  in  utterance ;  but  intensity  and  reality  were 
vividly  expressed.  After  prayer,  he  settled  down  to 
preliminary  notices.  The  routine  of  these  was  occa- 
sionally enlivened  by  humour.  '  I  have  received,'  he 
said,  one  day,  '  a  serious  charge  against  you,  gentlemen, 
of  disturbing  the  excellent  occupant  of  the  premises 
next  door,  by  your  pedal  demonstrations.'  The  neigh- 
bour was  a  well-known  dentist ;  and  the  pedal  demon- 
strations were  the  plaudits  with  the  feet  in  which  ardent 
Scotchmen  delight.  So  the  professor  proceeded — *I 
must  request  you,  gentlemen,  to  restrain  your  enthusiasm, 
for  it  is  not  well  to  give  cause  of  offence  to  a  gentleman 
who  is  so  much  i?t  the  mouths  of  the  public.^  Of  course, 
there  broke  out  a  louder  'pedal  demonstration'  than 
ever. 

"  The  lecture,  once  begun,  proceeded  with  more  of  the 
fire  allowed  in  the  pulpit  than  the  calmness  which  usually 
reigns  in  academical  halls.     It  was  difficult  to  take  notes, 


THE   CLOSING    YEARS.  I37 

for  one  often  sat  fascinated  by  the  professor's  delinea- 
tions and  appeals.  At  times  he  gained  a  singular  velo- 
city, and  projected  eloquent  passages  upon  us.  Sitting, 
as  I  did,  near  the  desk,  I  discovered  that  he  had  slipped 
between  the  pages  of  his  written  lecture,  occasional 
sheets  from  his  printed  volumes ;  and  these  contained 
favourite  passages,  apt  to  the  topic  of  the  lecture,  which 
he  rushed  upon  us  with  flashing  eye  and  foaming  lips, 
sometimes  even  leaping  to  his  feet,  and  ending  amidst  a 
whirlwind  of  applause.  We  all  recognised  that  his  lec- 
tures were  valuable,  chiefly  for  the  impulse  they  gave 
us  to  desire  that  we  might  be  able,  like  him,  to  launch  4 
truth  on  the  ears  of  men  with  the  momentum  of  intense 
conviction,  and  very  practical  concern  for  their  welfare 
and  well-doing. 

"  He  often  counselled  us,  while  stating  the  central 
doctrines  of  the  faith  in  our  future  ministry,  to  speak 
very  plainly  of  duty.  He  would  say,  '  If  you  speak  plainly 
you  will  not  fail  to  rouse  some  conscience.  When  I 
was  at  Kilmany  I  preached  one  day  on  honesty,  and  after 
the  sermon  some  of  the  people  asked  me  how  I  had 
heard  of  Mr. 's  fowls  having  been  stolen  on  Satur- 
day night.  The  circumstance  was  quite  unknown  to 
me.  I  happened  to  preach  on  the  next  Sabbath  in  a 
neighbouring  parish,  and  delivered  the  same  sermon. 
Curiously  enough,  there  had  been  some  plundering  of  the 
roosts  there  also,  of  which  I  had  heard  nothing.    But  the 

10 


138  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

rustics  persisted  in  speaking  of  my  discourse  as  "  Mr. 
Clialmers'  /ie;i  sermon."  Make  /im  sermons,  gentlemen  ! ' 
With  such  saUies  he  would  relieve  the  usual  gravity  of 
the  theological  class. 

"  Dr.  Chalmers  was  quite  a  father  in  the  college,  and 
lived  in  the  respect  and  affection  of  all.  His  colleagues 
were  congenial,  and  he  delighted  to  praise  them.  He 
was  quite  too  generous  in  recognising  talent  among  the 
students.  He  would  liken  them  to  one  or  other  of  the 
great  theologians  of  the  past.  In  criticising  their  pre- 
scribed discourses,  he  would  enumerate  '  the  memorabilia 
of  your  discourse.  Sir,'  in  a  way  that  raised  the  student's 
wonder  at  the  number  of  good  points  he  had  made. 

"  Such  was  his  paternal  feeling  for  his  class  that  he 
devoted  an  hour  daily  during  the  college  session  to  con- 
versation with  them  individually,  receiving  them  in  suc- 
cession in  his  retiring-room.  His  homely  manner  and 
kindly  tone  at  once  put  them  at  their  ease  in  his  presence, 
and  the  conversation,  however  brief,  never  ended  with- 
out some  words  on  personal  religion,  and  reference  to 
profitable  private  reading.  William  Guthrie's  'Trial  of 
a  Saving  Interest  in  Christ,'  and  Owen's  works  on  '  In- 
dwelling Sin  '  and  '  Spiritual-mindedness,'  were  especially 
recommended.  Many  Irish  students  had  come  over  to 
study  under  Chalmers,  and  on  ■  St.  Patrick's  Day  he 
received  them  all  to  breakfast,  and  poured  out  to  them 
his  longing  desire  to  see  their  country  pervaded  by 
Scripture  readers,  and  delivered  from  its  priests." 


THE   CLOSING    YEARS.  I39 

The  new  organisation  of  the  Free  Church,  with  all  its 
"  schemes  "  and  missions,  heavily  taxed  the  energies  of 
its  more  prominent  men  ;  but  Chalmers  confined  himself 
to  a  few  departments — Education,  Church  Extension, 
and  the  Sustentation  Fund.  Wisely  so,  for  there  were 
younger  brethren  at  hand  to  conduct  the  details  of  busi- 
ness ;  and  he  had  never  been  one  of  those  agile  men 
who  can  go  from  one  committee-room  to  another,  throw 
their  minds  into  every  question  as  it  arises,  then  rush 
away  to  lecture  on  another  subject,  or  to  address  a  public 
meeting.  Chalmers  loved  to  settle  down  on  one  thing  at 
a  time,  and  work  it  out  like  a  mathematical  problem. 
He  was  thus  an  excellent  administrator  of  what  he  under- 
took to  manage,  but  could  not  fly  through  miscellaneous 
business.  And  the  same  characteristic  belonged  to  his 
public  speaking.  He  would  not,  or  could  not,  rove  or 
ramble  in  his  speech,  for  his  mental  endeavour  was  to 
demonstrate,  and  then  to  drive  his  demonstration  into 
other  minds.  It  is  told  of  him  that  when  a  co- Presbyter 
endeavoured  to  persuade  him  to  speak  at  large  on  some 
public  question  of  the  day  he  answered,  "  Give  me  the 
one  main  point  of  the  case  and  I'll  work  it  out ;  I  can-  >^ 
not  scatter  myself  on  a  multitude  of  points." 

The  Sustentation  Fund  was  not  only  thought  out  but 
worked  out  into  successful  operation  by  Chalmers.  Be- 
sides writing  vigorous  appeals,  expositions,  and  reports, 
and  presiding  over  the  general  committee  which  was  in 


140  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

charge  of  the  fund,  he  made  a  tour  in  the  provinces,  and 
in  town  after  town  met  the  bands  of  collectors  who 
volunteered  to  gather  the  monthly  offerings  for  the  fund, 
patiently  explaining  to  them  the  nature  of  their  duties,  and 
animating  them  to  punctuality  and  zeal.  He  also  took  an 
important  part  in  originating  the  building  fund  of  the  Free 
Church ;  and  as  new  houses  of  prayer  in  hundreds  rose 
almost  simultaneously  in  all  parts  of  Scotland,  he  saw 
that  for  all  his  disappointment  in  losing  the  new  churches 
which  had  been  added  to  the  EstabHshment,  mainly  by 
his  efforts,  he  had  more  than  a  compensation  in  this  vast 
amount  of  church  extension.  In  the  year  1845,  how- 
ever, Dr.  Chalmers  retired  from  public  responsibility  for 
the  great  central  funds  of  the  Free  Church.  He  was 
then  sixty-five  years  of  age,  and  it  had  always  been  a 
hope  cherished  by  him  that  after  he  had  passed  his 
sixtieth  year  he  should  enjoy  a  Sabbatic  life  of  com- 
parative rest.  He  found  himself  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
three  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  ecclesiastical  turmoil 
known  to  Scotland  for  generations,  and  deeply  involved 
in  it ;  but  when  the  sixty-fifth  year  passed  he  reckoned 
it  his  "  Sabbath  afternoon,"  and  he  was  resolved  to  escape 
from  "  bustling,  various,  engrossing  work  "  which  he  found 
to  "  encroach  too  much  on  the  higher  occupations  of 
good  reading  and  good  thinking." 

Yet  there  was  an  arduous  work  into  which  Dr.  Chal- 
mers plunged  even  in  his  sixty-fifth  year.     From  the  days 


THE   CLOSING    YEARS.  I41 

of  his  ministry  in  Glasgow  his  heart  had  brooded  over 
the  condition  of  the  people.  In  advocating  a  Church 
Establishment  he  had  been  actuated  by  no  mere  love  of 
prestige  or  dignity,  but  by  admiration  of  the  parochial 
system,  as  the  best  fitted,  if  extended  in  proportion  to 
the  growth  of  population,  to  diffuse  religious  truth  and 
influence  through  all  classes  of  the  community.  And 
now  that  he  and  his  brethren  of  the  Free  Church  had 
deemed  it  their  duty  to  disestablish  themselves,  he  imme- 
diately considered  how  to  work  out  on  the  new  platform 
the  great  practical  result  of  which  he  never  lost  sight, 
and  which  he  called  in  his  characteristic  phraseology 
"the  evangelisation  of  the  masses."  It  soon  became 
evident  that  the  Free  Church  could,  by  means  of  the 
Sustentation  Fund,  supply  ministration  to  its  adherents 
all  over  Scotland,  even  in  the  poorest  parts  of  the  High- 
lands and  Islands.  This  in  itself  was  a  wonderful 
achievement.  But  could  it  reach  the  careless  crowds  in 
large  cities,  and  do  for  them  what  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, in  its  unbroken  condition,  had  failed  to  accomplish  ? 
Chalmers  resolved  to  turn  some  share  at  all  events  of  the 
newly-developed  Free  Church  energy  in  this  direction ; 
and  with  a  devotion  to  the  cause  that  may  even  be  called 
sublime,  entered,  at  the  age  of  sixty-four,  on  an  arduous 
experiment,  with  a  view  to  show  by  example  what  can  be 
done  for  a  poor  and  neglected  district  by  local  Christian 
institutions  and  agencies.     The  district  which  he  selected 


143  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

was  called  the  West  Port,  in  the  "  old  town  "  of  Edin< 
burgh,  and  it  was  inhabited  at  that  time  by  a  compara- 
tively degraded  and  wretched  population.  He  resolved 
to  try  what  could  be  made  of  it,  under  God's  blessing, 
by  an  active  organisation  of  Christian  volunteers  for 
visiting  the  houses  of  the  people,  and  by  planting  a  dis- 
trict church  and  schools.  This  he  called  a  territorial 
system ;  for  it  was  ever  his  custom  to  attach  expressive 
designations  of  his  own  devising  to  his  ideas  and 
schemes,  and  he  inclined  to  terms  that  have  a  swelling 
sound.  So  he  had  called  the  central  fund  of  the  Free 
Church  one,  not  for  ministerial  support,  or  even  suste- 
nance, but  for  sustentation^  and  he  signalised  the  district 
round  a  mission  Church  as  a  territory. 

A  fine  instance  of  the  ruling  passion  burning  bright 
and  strong  even  in  decUning  years  !  After  all  the  ap- 
plause and  excitement  which  had  attended  his  public 
career,  the  famous  author,  admired  divine,  incomparable 
orator,  devoted  himself  with  singleness  of  purpose  to  an 
obscure  and  almost  squalid  district  of  Edinburgh,  and  4- 
with  all  the  ardour  of  his  spirit  prayed  and  worked  to 
raise  the  moral  and  religious  tone  of  its  neglected  popu- 
lace. He  set  about  the  task  in  the  deliberate  systematic 
fashion  which  had  marked  his  similar  efforts  in  Glasgow. 
His  theory  had  always  been  that  a  manageable  town 
parish  should  consist  of  about  four  hundred  families,  for 
whom  a  church  should  be  provided  with  a  public  school 


THE   CLOSING    YEARS.  I43 

at  low  fees.  The  district  in  the  West  Port  corresponded 
to  this  scale ;  and  it  was  divided  by  Dr.  Chalmers  into 
twenty  propoi'tions  (his  old  Glasgow  word  revived), 
each  comprising  as  nearly  as  possible  twenty  families. 
These  he  allotted  to  visitors  for  regular  kindly  super- 
vision. 

The  first  step,  of  course,  was  to  survey  and  explore 
"  the  territory."  The  result  was  this :  Of  411  families, 
forty-five  were  found  to  be  attached  to  some  Protestant 
Church,  seventy  were  Roman  Catholics,  and  296  had  no 
Church  connection  whatever.  Out  of  a  gross  population 
of  2,000  about  1,500  attended  no  place  of  worship.  Of 
411  children  capable  of  attending  school,  290  were 
growing  up  entirely  untaught.  One-fourth  of  the  in- 
habitants were  paupers  receiving  outdoor  relief,  and  one- 
fourth  were  thieves,  professional  beggars,  and  riff-raff. 
It  was  just  what  Dr.  Chalmers  wanted  for  a  crucial  ex- 
periment. It  drew  his  interest  more  than  the  most 
dignified  audience  ever  had  done.  So  he  set  his  visitors 
to  work  in  the  "  wynds  and  closes  "  of  the  West  Port, 
presided  regularly  at  their  meetings,  heard  their  reports, 
entered  patiently  into  their  details,  and  cheered  on  the 
assiduous  band  by  his  counsels  and  by  the  contagion  of 
his  own  indomitable  courage  of  faith  and  hope.  He 
prayed  over  the  work  with  intense  yearning  of  spirit,  and 
was  as  glad  to  preach  the  Word  of  God  to  eighty  or  a 
hundred  poor  people  in  "  a  loft  "  as  ever  he  had  been  to 


144  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

address  the  crowds  that  hung  on  his  Hps  in  Glasgow  or 
in  London. 

From  the  same  pen  that  has  suppUed  us  with  reminis- 
cences of  Dr.  Chahiiers  in  the  temporary  Free  Church 
College,  we  have  the  following  regarding  the  services  in 
the  tan-loft  : 

"  The  locality  was  obscure  and  unsavoury.  It  was 
said  to  be  the  very  '  close '  in  which  Burke  and  Hare  had 
committed  their  murders.  A  loft  had  been  cleared  out 
and  seated.  Crowds  of  admirers  used  to  come  and  take 
up  the  seats  so  as  to  incommode  the  poor  for  whom  they 
were  intended.  The  Doctor  resented  this,  and  forbade 
any  advertisement  of  his  service.  The  sermon  which  I 
heard  was  to  children,  and  a  mass  of  the  ragged  youths 
of  the  neighbourhood  sat  before  the  simple  desk.  Others 
were  present,  some  of  them  people  of  position  ;  but 
Chalmers  devoted  himself  entirely  to  the  young.  He 
used  his  manuscript,  but  interjected  explanations.  In 
his  earnestness  his  gold  spectacles  were  now  on  his  nose, 
now  on  the  Bible,  and  now  in  the  air.  If  the  young 
forgot,  I  know  that  some  who  were  older  remembered 
that  preaching  for  many  a  day." 

After  two  years  of  such  labour,  well  seconded  by  his 
coadjutor,  the  Rev.  W.  Tasker,  Dr.  Chalmers  found  him- 
self in  a  position  to  open  a  new  Free  Church  for  Divine 
service  in  the  West  Port,  and  to  administer  the  Lord's 
Supper  to    132  communicants,  of  whom  100  had  been 


THE    CLOSING    YEARS.  I45 

gathered  to  Christ  and  the  Church  within  that  period 
from  the  allotted  "  territory."  It  was  intensely  gratify- 
W-  ing  to  him.  He  wrote  of  it  as  "  the  most  joyful 
event "  of  his  life.  "  God  has  indeed  heard  my  prayer, 
and  I  could  now  lay  down  my  head  in  peace  and 
die." 

This  may  seem  to  some  persons  to  be  rather  too  much 
ecstasy  over  a  not  very  wonderful  success.  But  two  things 
are  to  be  considered : 

( i)  Such  an  undertaking  was  very  much  of  a  novelty  at 
that  period.  Chalmers  in  this,  as  in  some  other  respects, 
was  a  pioneer.  The  old  school  of  parochial  clergy,  among 
whom  he  was  brought  up,  went  through  their  routine  of 
duty,  and  were  kind  to  "  their  poor,"  but  never  dreamed 
of  such  operations  as  Chalmers  projected  and  carried 
out.  The  Dissenting  ministers  attended  to  their  own 
congregations,  and  had  no  time  or  means  at  their  dis- 
posal to  undertake  systematic  missions  of  this  descrip- 
tion. So  the  joy  of  Chalmers  was  not  merely  that  of  a 
Christian  heart  over  sheep  that  had  been  lost  and  were 
found,  but  that  of  a  forerunner  demonstrating  to  all 
around  him  and  all  who  should  come  after  him  the  right 
way  of  dealing  with  a  problem  which  was  yearly  becom- 
ing more  distressing  and  more  formidable — the  irreligion 
and  degradation  into  which  masses  of  urban  population  ^ 
are  liable  to  sink. 

(2)  The  West  Port  system  of  Chalmers  differed  alto- 


146  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

gether  from  the  plan  of  "  special  services  "  which  is  now 
so  much  in  vogue.  It  ignored  everything  that  can  be 
called  spasmodic.  No  one  ever  accused  it  of  being  sen- 
sational. Now  the  special  mission  preacher  stirs  up 
a  district  or  a  congregation  for  a  week  or  two,  then 
passes  on  to  other  scenes.  If  judicious  men  are  left 
behind  to  gather  in  the  results  much  fruit  may  appear 
and  continue ;  but  if  not,  the  converts  numbered  with 
confidence  scatter,  and  to  a  great  extent  disappear.  One 
joins  this  Church,  another  joins  that,  some  go  back  to 
folly,  others  are  to  be  found  trying  to  preach  in  mission 
halls,  but  adding  no  strength  to  any  communion,  and 
subject  to  no  ecclesiastical  supervision.  In  contrast  with 
this  the  plan  of  Dr.  Chalmers  relies  on  assiduous 
systematic  Christian  effort  within  definite  limits.  It 
gathers  its  results  to  a  centre  and  stores  them  up.  And 
the  people  whom  it  rescues  from  evil  are  carefully  in- 
structed and  examined  before  their  reception  to  com- 
munion, and  thereafter  carefully  shepherded  and  taught. 
It  may  seem  a  much  slower  method  than  the  other,  but 
its  results  are  worth  waiting  for.  At  the  same  time  there 
is  no  reason  why  the  experiment  of  "  special  services  " 
may  not  be  engrafte'd  to  some  extent  on  the  territorial 
system  to  break  monotony,  and  quicken  the  pulse  of 
Christian  enthusiasm. 

It  may  be  added  here  that  Dr.  Chalmers  was  strongly 
opposed  to  the  giving  of  doles  of  money  or  clothing  to 


THE   CLOSING    YEARS.  1 47 

the  people  in  connection  with  rehgious  services.  Kind- 
ness was  to  be  shown  to  the  sick  and  helpless ;  but  the 
poor  should  be  taught  to  maintain  their  self-respect,  and 
gradually  to  raise  themselves  by  industry  and  thrift.  He 
would  not  have  clothes  distributed  among  them  by  the 
mission  visitors,  but  would  encourage  them  to  save  the 
money  wasted  on  strong  drink  and  buy  their  own  dress, 
like  other  people.  In  this,  too,  he  was  remarkably  suc- 
cessful; for  the  West  Port  congregation,  mainly  consisting 
of  persons  who  had  been  found  in  extreme  poverty,  soon 
showed  itself  so  respectably  dressed  that  onlookers  could 
hardly  believe  that  the  church  was  occupied  by  the  class 
for  whom  it  was  intended. 

The  relief  of  the  poor  was  an  old  and  familiar  subject 
of  study  with  Chalmers.  He  wished  to  repress,  and  in 
course  of  time  extingaish,  pauperism.  But  his  counsels 
were  unheeded  ;  and  he  had  the  mortification  of  seeing 
the  Poor  Law  for  Scotland  enacted  in  1845.  There  is  a 
passage  in  his  "  Horoe  Sabbaticae  "  which  expresses  his 
feelings  at  this  period  in  terms  that  every  one  must  ad- 
mire. It  is  his  meditation  on  the  story  of  the  Tower  of 
Babel.  "  The  passage  respecting  Babel  should  not  be 
without  an  humble  and  wholesome  effect  upon  my  spirit. 
I  have  been  set  on  the  erection  of  my  Babels — on  the  J- 
establishment  of  at  least  two  great  objects,  which,  how- 
ever right  in  themselves,  become  the  mere  idols  of  a 
fond  and  proud  imagination,  in  as  far  as  they  are  not 


148  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

prosecuted  with  a  feeling  of  dependence  upon  God,  and 
a  supreme  desire  after  His  glory.  These  two  objects  are 
the  deUverance  of  our  empire  from  pauperism,  and  the 
estabUshment  of  an  adequate  machinery  for  the  Christian 
and  general  instruction  of  our  whole  population.  I  am 
sure  that  in  the  advancement  of  them  I  have  not  taken 
God  enough  along  with  me,  and  trusted  more  to  my  own 
arguments  and  combinations  among  my  fellows  than  to 
prayers.  There  has  been  no  confounding  of  tongues  to 
prevent  a  common  understanding,  so  indispensable  to 
that  co-operation  without  which  there  can  be  no  success  ; 
but,  without  this  miracle,  my  views  have  been  marvel- 
lously impeded  by  a  diversity  of  opinions  as  great  as  if  it 
had  been  brought  on  by  a  diversity  of  language.  The 
barrier  in  the  way  of  access  to  other  men's  minds  has 
been  as  obstinate  and  unyielding  as  if  I  had  spoken  to 
them  in  foreign  speech ;  and  though  I  cannot  resign  my 
convictions,  I  must  now — and  surely  it  is  good  to  be  so 
taught — I  must  now,  under  the  experimental  sense  of  my 
own  helplessness,  acknowledge  with  all  humiUty,  yet  with 
hope  in  the  efficacy  of  a  blessing  from  on  high  still  in 
reserve  for  the  day  of  God's  own  appointed  time — that 
except  the  Lord  build  the  house  the  builders  build  in 
vain."  It  is  the  grief  of  prophets  and  seers  from  time 
immemorial,  "  Who  hath  believed  our  report  ?  ^'  How  is 
it  that  things  so  clear  to  us  cannot  be  discerned  by 
others  even  when  set  before  them  ?     But  they  have  not 


THE   CLOSING    YEARS.  1 49 

in  all  cases  endured  this  vexation  with  such  patience 
and  resignation  to  the  will  of  God  as  Chalmers 
evinced.  He  knew  that  his  cause  had  been  right,  and 
with  touching  humility  blamed  himself  for  its  non- 
success. 

In  the  year  1845  ^^'^  ^^^  the  name  of  Dr.  Chalmers 
among  the  founders  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance.  He 
was  unable  to  attend  the  conference  in  Liverpool,  from 
which  that  important  organisation  sprang ;  but  he  fur- 
thered its  object  by  issuing  a  timely  pamphlet.  This  was 
the  first  in  a  volume  of  essays  on  Christian  union,  pub- 
lished at  the  instance  of  the  late  John  Henderson,  Esq., 
which  was  of  great  service  in  preparing  the  way  for  the 
Alliance.  In  this  essay  he  advocated  co-operation  among 
Christians  as  a  step  to  incorporation.  He  pleaded  that 
there  should  be  "  common  enterprises  of  well-doing,"  and 
argued  that  working  together  will  soonest  bring  Christians 
to  think  together.  In  the  end  of  the  essay  he  avowed 
the  hope  of  an  ulterior  result — "  a  brilliant  perspective  " 
—  a  comprehensive  union  by  which  not  only  the  smaller 
but  the  larger  differences  of  the  Christian  world  will  at 
length  be  harmonised.  He  foresaw  in  this  vision  the 
technology  of  dogmatic  religion  falling  into  desuetude, 
and  the  uproar  of  controversy  stilled.  "  The  doctrines  in 
which  many  now  terminate  as  if  they  were  the  ultimate 
truths  of  the  record  will  be  found  themselves  to  be  sub- 
ordinate to  the  one  and  reigning  expression  of  Heaven's 


150  THOMAS  CHALMERS. 

kindness  to  the  world,  by  which  the  whole  scheme  of  oui 
redemption  is  provided. 


** '  I'm  apt  to  think,  the  man 
That  could  surround  the  sum  of  things,  and  spy 
The  heart  of  God  and  secrets  of  His  empire. 
Would  speak  but  love.     With  him  the  bright  result 
Would  change  the  hue  of  intermediate  scenes, 
And  make  one  thing  of  all  theology.'  " 


f 


These  lines  of  Gambold,  the  Moravian,  formed  a  frequent 
and  favourite  quotation  with  Dr.  Chalmers.  With  them 
he  wound  up  his  most  finished  work,  the  "Institutes  of 
Theology." 

His  literary  labours  at  this  period  were  considerable, 
but  not  incessant  as  in  former  years.  He  contributed  a 
good  many  articles  to  the  "North  British  Review," 
reverting  for  this  purpose  to  his  old  studies  in  political 
economy ;  but  review  writing  was  not  suited  to  his  mind. 
Day  by  day,  however,  he  wrote  in  small  portions  those 
volumes  which  have  been  posthumously  published  as 
"Daily  Scripture  Readings"  (3  vols.)  and  "  Horae  Sab- 
baticse  "  (2  vols.).  They  consist  of  short  reflections  on 
passages  of  Holy  Writ,  read  in  order  from  the  year 
1 841  onwards.  Go  where  he  might,  Chalmers  never 
omitted  the  reading  of  his  Scripture  portion,  and  writing 
down  his  thoughts  upon  it ;  and  on  Sunday  he  wrote 
more  at  leisure  and  in  a  higher  devotional  strain.  These 
comments  and  meditations  are  exactly  what  they  profess 


THE   CLOSING    YEARS.  I51 

to  be — written  for  the  author's  personal  benefit,  not  for 
the  public  eye.  They  are  of  no  exegetical  value,  but 
they  illustrate  admirably  the  author's  simple  and  un- 
feigned piety.  He  kept  beside  him  five  works,  which  he 
called  his  "  Biblical  Library,"  and  went  no  farther  than 
these  as  helps  to  understand  the  Scriptures.  They  were 
the  "Concordance,"  Kitto's  "Pictorial  Bible,"  Poole's 
"  Synopsis,"  Henry's  "  Commentary,"  and  Robinson's 
"Researches  in  Palestine."  With  linguistic  niceties  he 
never  concerned  himself.  In  his  "  Horse  Sabbaticae  "  we 
are  permitted  to  know  the  innermost  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings of  the  writer  almost  too  well.  It  is  as  though  we 
had  hidden  ourselves  in  some  recess  of  his  chamber  and 
heard  him  talking  with  himself  and  pleading  with  his 
God.  As  he  reads  his  Bible  he  constantly  lays  bare  his 
own  heart,  acknowledges  his  faults,  pours  out  his  praise 
and  his  lowly  supplication  to  his  Father  in  heaven. 
Chalmers,  while  in  his  outer  life  always  labouring  and 
contending  for  the  good  of  others,  not  of  himself,  in  his 
inner  life  laboured  and  contended  with  himself 

**  His  warfare  is  within.    There,  unfatigued, 
His  fervent  spirit  labours.     There  he  fights, 
And  there  obtains  fresh  triumphs  o'er  himself 
And  never-withcrir.g  wreaths." 

In  the  "  Horse  Sabbaticae "  we  are  struck  with  his 
strictness  in  examining  and  judging  himself  He  blames 
himself  for   "  spiritual  cowardice  "  in  not  venturing  to 


152  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

speak  to  individuals  about  their  salvation,  and  for  "  sinful 
emulations,  and  the  ambition  of  superiority  over  others." 
When  he  reads  the  beatitudes  in  Matthew  v.  he  notes, 
"  My  most  glaring  deficiencies  are  from  the  virtues  of 
the  fifth  and  eighth  verses " — /.<?.,  meekness  and  purity 
of  heart.  When,  in  reading  the  Gospel  of  St.  Mark,  he 
came  on  the  parable  of  the  sower  for  the  second  time, 
he  writes,  "  Let  me  repeat  my  own  special  place  and 
designation  in  the  parable  of  the  sower.  The  ground  of 
my  heart  is  overspread  with  thorns.  Enable  me,  O  God, 
to  persevere  with  at  least  half  an  hour  of  devotional 
exercise  and  meditation  every  day  after  my  siesta,  and 
may  the  effect  be  to  loosen  and  unfix  the  thorns,  and  to 
eject  them  from  my  affections,  and  make  room  there  for 
the  establishment  and  growth  of  the  good  seed  of  the 
Word  of  God."  On  reading  parts  of  the  New  Testament 
which  refer  to  the  Christian  temper,  Dr.  Chalmers  in- 
variably calls  himself  severely  to  account,  very  conscious 
as  he  was  of  native  impetuosity.  Thus  on  Titus  i. :  "  Oh 
that  I  had  better  observed  the  apostolic  gentleness  which 
becomes  a  teacher  and  office-bearer  in  the  Church  !  May 
I  know  what  it  is  to  abstain  from  striving,  and  to  instruct 
in  meekness.  I  err  sadly  in  this  respect — impatient 
of  contradiction,  wayward,  and  greatly  wanting  in  the 
wisdom  of  meekness.  .  .  .  There  are  others  besides  the 
Cretans  who  might  well  provoke  a  resentful  as  well  as  an 
indignant  feeling;  yet  let  the  sharpness  of  my  rebuke 


THE   CLOSING    YEARS.  153 

have  nothing  more  in  it  than  moral  indignancy,  no  per- 
sonal resentment/'  And  on  James  v. :  "  Let  me  both 
intercede  for  others,  and  crave  the  intercessions  of  the 
faithful  for  myself.  I  stand  earnestly  in  need.  I  have  com- 
mitted many  offences  ;  the  good  Lord  forgive  them  all !  " 

The  latter  days  of  Chalmers  were  passed  amidst  signs 
of  universal  respect,  and  in  the  bosom  of  his  family, 
where  he  always  was  happy.  But  he  had  not  many  in 
timate  friends.  The  fact  is  that  under  all  his  frankness 
and  cordiality  of  spirit  there  lay  a  strong  reserve,  within 
which  hardly  any  one  was  admitted  but  the  God  b-^fore 
whom  his  heart  was  open,  and  to  whom  he  sought  to 
approve  himself  as  a  true  servant  of  Christ.  He  had 
his  own  musings  apart,  and,  after  the  manner  of  strong- 
minded  men,  conversed  chiefly  with  himself.  In  his 
meditations,  written  June,  1842,  in  the  thick  of  the 
ecclesiastical  conflict,  he  notes  that  he  was  "intimate  with 
neither  of  the  parties  in  the  Church."  And  he  adds,  "  I 
am  conversant  more  with  principles  than  persons.  I  begin 
to  suspect  that  the  intensity  of  my  own  separate  pursuit  -^ 
has  isolated  me  from  living  men ;  and  there  is  a  want  of 
that  amalgamation  about  me  which  cements  the  com- 
panionships and  closer  brotherhoods  that  obtain  in 
society." 

Once  more  he  visited  London,  in  order  to  give 
evidence  before  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
on  the  question  of  the  refusal  of  sites  for  Free  Churches 

II 


154  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

by  certain  landowners  in  Scotland.  Before  the  com- 
mittee he  was  subjected  to  a  severe  examination  by  Sir 
James  Graham,  but  met  his  questions  with  a  spirit  and 
ability  that  showed  no  failure  of  intellectual  power.  He 
finishes  his  own  account  of  the  examination  thus  :  "  And 
so  we  concluded  in  a  state  of  great  exhaustion,  yet  with 
an  erect  demeanour  and  visage  unabashed."  The  only 
public  appearance  which  he  made  was  in  the  pulpit  of 
the  Marylebone  Presbyterian  Church,  on  9th  May,  1847. 
It  was  the  last  occasion  of  his  preaching  in  London,  and 
the  sermon  was  that  which  is  the  best  known  of  all  his 
published  discourses,  on  "  The  Expulsive  Power  of  a  New 
Affection."  Lord  John  Russell,  Lord  Morpeth,  and 
other  persons  of  distinction  were  present.  On  the  same 
afternoon  Dr.  Chalmers  received  a  visit  from  the  great 
Wesleyan  leader.  Dr.  Bunting,  for  whom  he  had  a  great 
regard.  His  own  note  is,  "  Most  exquisite  interview  with 
one  of  the  best  and  wisest  of  men."  During  the  week 
following  he  met  in  society  and  at  the  Athenseum  some 
of  the  more  eminent  men  of  the  day,  e.g.,  Dr.  Whewell, 
Sir  Charles  Lyall,  Isaac  Taylor,  and  the  Hon.  and  Rev. 
Baptist  Noel.  With  Lord  Morpeth  and  Sir  Charles 
Trevelyan  he  conferred  on  those  social  and  philanthropic 
questions  which  were  never  far  from  his  thoughts,  and 
sets  them  down  as  "  the  most  interesting  people  "  he  had 
met  in  London ;  this,  no  doubt,  because  they  talked  of 
what  interested  him.    But  he  mentions  a  visit  paid  to  a 


t 


THE   CLOSING    YEARS.  155 

man  of  more  mark  than  any  whom  we  have  named — 
Thomas  Carlyle.  "A  strong-featured  man,  and  of  strong 
sense.  We  were  most  cordial  and  coalescing,  and  he 
very  complimentary  and  pleasant.  The  points  on  which 
I  was  most  interested  were  his  approval  of  my  territorial 
^^  system,  and  his  eulogy  on  direct  thmking,  to  the  utter 
disparagement  of  those  subjective  philosoj^hers  who  are 
constantly  thinking  upon  thinking.  We  stopped  more 
than  an  hour  with  him." 

In  the  recently  published  "  Reminiscences"  Mr.  Carlyle 
refers  to  this  interview  as  follows  :  "  Chalmers  was  him- 
self very  beautiful  to  us  during  that  hour,  grave — not 
too  grave — earnest,  cordial  face  and  figure  very  little 
altered,  only  the  head  had  grown  white,  and  in  the  eyes 
and  features  you  could  read  something  of  a  serene  sad- 
ness, as  if  evening  and  star-crowned  night  were  coming 
on,  and  the  hot  noises  of  the  day  growing  unexpectedly 
insignificant  to  one.  We  had  little  thought  this  would 
be  the  last  of  Chalmers  ;  but  in  a  few  weeks  after  he 
suddenly  died.  .  .  .  He  was  a  man  of  much  natural 
dignity,  ingenuity,  honesty,  and  kind  affection,  as  well  as 
sound  intellect  and  imagination.  A  very  eminent  vivacity 
lay  in  him,  which  could  rise  to  complete  impetuosity 
(growing  conviction,  passionate  eloquence,  fiery  play  of 
heart  and  head)  all  in  a  kind  of  rusfu'  type,  one  might 
say,  though  wonderfully  true  and  tender.  He  had  a 
burst  of  genuine  fun,   too,  I  have  heard,  of  the  same 


156  THOMAS  CHALMERS. 

honest  but  most  plebeian  broadly  natural  character  ;  his 
laugh  was  a  hearty,  low  guffaw ;  and  his  tones  in  preach- 
ing would  rise  to  the  piercingly  pathetic — no  preacher 
ever  went  so  into  one's  heart."  ^ 

From  London,  Dr.  Chalmers  went  to  Brighton,  where 
he  preached  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Queen's  Road  ; 
then  went  down  to  Oxford  with  Dr.  Buckland,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  the  neighbourhood  of  Bristol  on  a  visit  to  one 
of  his  married  sisters.  He  preached  what  proved  to  be 
his  last  sermon  in  the  Independent  Chapel  at  Whitfield, 
and  took  one  of  his  favourite  texts— Isaiah  xxvii.  4,  5.     f- 

On  the  following  Friday  he  returned  to  his  home  in 
Edinburgh,  and  on  Sunday  morning  attended  the  Free 
Church  at  Morningside.  He  spent  the  evening  with  his 
family  in  a  happy  mood,  and  retired  early  to  rest.  "And 
he  was  not,  for  God  took  him."  In  the  morning  his  body 
was  found  cold  and  lifeless,  death  having  probably 
occurred  hours  before.  Apparently  he  had  passed  awa) 
without  a  struggle,  his  countenance  bearing  no  trace  of 
disturbance  or  suffering,  but  fixed  in  majestic  repose, 

*  *  Like  one  who  wraps  the  drapery  of  his  couch 
About  him,  and  lies  down  to  pleasant  dreams." 

A  king  of  men  had  passed  from  the  earth ;  and  through 
all  Christendom  there  went  a  wave  of  tender  sorrow. 
The  great  Chalmers  was  dead. 

They  buried  him  in  the  Grange  Cemetery  at  Edin- 
^  Reminiscences  of  Thomas  Carlyle,"  vol.  i.p.  159. 


y\ 


THE   CLOSING    YEARS.  I57 

burgh ;  and  it  is  said  that,  besides  the  long  procession  of 
mourners,  which  inckided  the  magistrates  of  the  city  in 
their  robes,  and  the  representatives  of  many  pubhc  bodies, 
more  than  a  hundred  thousand  spectators  hned  the  road 
over  which  his  honoured  dust  was  drawn  to  its  resting- 
place.  Hugh  Miller  wrote  in  the  "Witness"  newspaper 
of  the  following  morning  :  "  Never  before,  in  at  least  the 
memory  of  man,  did  Scotland  witness  such  a  funeral. 
Greatness  of  the  mere  extrinsic  type  can  always  command 
a  showy  pageant ;  but  mere  extrinsic  greatness  never  yet 
succeeded  in  purchasing  the  tears  of  a  people  ;  and  the 
spectacle  of  yesterday — in  which  the  trappings  of  grief, 
worn  not  as  idle  signs,  but  as  the  representatives  of  a  real 
sorrow,  were  borne  by  well-nigh  half  of  the  population  of 
the  metropolis,  and  blackened  the  public  ways  for  furlong 
after  furlong,  and  mile  after  mile — was  such  as  Scotland 
has  rarely  witnessed,  and  which  mere  rank  or  wealth, 
when  at  the  highest  or  the  fullest,  were  never  yet  able  to 
buy.  It  was  a  solemn  tribute,  spontaneously  paid  to  de- 
parted goodness  and  greatness  by  the  public  mind." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

WJIV  WORTH  REMEMBERING, 

WHEN  a  friend  dilated  to  Dr.  Chalmers  on  the 
merits  of  a  rising  man,  the  Doctor  bluntly  put 
the  question,  "  Sir,  is  he  a  man  of  ivecht  ?  "  It  is  a  good 
phrase  to  describe  himself  There  was  nothing  flimsy 
about  his  mind,  but  a  mass  of  solid  effective  quality. 
And  there  was  nothing  morbid.  It  was  a  robust,  coura- 
geous, sunny  mind.  His  influence  over  his  contempora- 
ries it  is  not  difficult  to  account  for.  He  had  simplicity 
of  conception,  boldness  of  initiative,  breadth  of  survey, 
and  firmness  of  conviction ;  and  all  these,  taken  along 
with  his  rare  faculty  of  communication,  could  not  fail  to 
place  him  in  the  front  rank  of  those  who  shaped  the 
public  opinion  of  his  time.  Here  was  a  man  who  could 
influence  not  merely  crowds  of  common  minds,  but  the 
ablest  intelligences  that  came  within  his  range.  Mr. 
Gladstone  has  written  of  him  as  "  one  of  nature's  nobles," 
and  has  referred  to  ''  his  rich  and  glowing  eloquence,  his 


4- 


WHY   WORTH  REMEMBERING.  1 59 

warrior  grandeur,  his  unbounded  philanthropy,  his  strength 
of  purpose,  his  mental  integrity,  his  absorbed  and  absorb- 
ing earnestness ;  above  all,  his  singular  simplicity  and 
detachment  from  the  world." 

The  mind  of  Chalmers  had  the  preciseness  of  a  man 
of  science,  and  the  breadth  of  a  statesman;  and  its 
powers  were  nobly  used  because  actuated  by  the  aims  and 
motives  of  a  man  of  God.  His  moral  nature  being 
sound  and  generous,  while  his  mental  processes  were 
shrewd  and  deliberate,  he  found  his  way  to  the  healthy 
side  of  questions,  and  enforced  his  conclusions  on  others 
not  with  enthusiasm  only,  and  fervid  eloquence,  but  with 
strong  tenacity  of  purpose.  Dr.  Smith,  from  whom  we 
have  quoted  a  description  of  the  habits  of  Chalmers  in 
Glasgow,  bears  testimony  to  the  persistence  of  his  mind : 
"Many  have  been  under  the  impression  that  Dr. 
Chalmers  was  more  a  man  of  powerful  impulses,  who 
achieved  wonderful  things  by  fits  and  starts  of  burning 
zeal,  than  of  systematic  persevering  application  of  mind. 
There  never  was  a  greater  mistake.  The  main  secret  of 
his  strength  lay  in  his  indomitable  resolution  to  master 
whatever  he  undertook.  When  convinced  that  it  was  his 
duty  to  address  himself  to  some  course  of  study  or  of 
action,  he  concentrated  on  that  his  energies  of  mind  and 
body,  and  with  indefatigable  assiduity  completed  his 
work."  Dr.  Hanna  gives  similar  information  as  to  his 
habits  of  study  and  composition :  "The  preparatory  rumi- 


l6o  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

nating  or  excogitating  process  was  slow,  but  it  was  com- 
plete. He  often  gave  it  as  the  reason  why  he  did  not  and 
could  not  take  part  in  the  ordinary  debates  of  the  General 
Assembly,  that  he  had  not  the  faculty  which  some  men 
seemed  to  him  to  possess,  of  thinking  extempore ;  nor 
could  he  be  so  sure  of  any  judgment  as  to  have  comfort 
in  bringing  it  before  the  public  till  he  had  leisurely  weighed 
and  measured  it.  He  was  vehement  often  in  his  mode 
of  expression,  but  no  hasty  judgment  was  ever  penned  or 
publicly  spoken  by  him.  '  I  have  often  fancied,'  he  once 
said  to  me,  '  that  in  one  respect  I  resemble  Rosseau,  who 
says  of  himself  that  his  processes  of  thought  were  slow 
but  ardent'  A  curious  and  rare  combination.  In  pro- 
portion, however,  to  the  slowness  with  which  his  conclu- 
sions were  reached,  was  the  firmness  with  which  they 
were  rivetted.  Pie  has  been  charged  with  inconsistencies, 
but  (putting  aside  the  alteration  in  his  religious  senti- 
ments) I  am  not  aware  of  any  one  opinion  formally  ex- 
pressed or  published  by  him  which  he  ever  changed  or 
retracted.  This  slow  and  deliberate  habit  of  thinking 
gave  him  a  great  advantage  when  the  act  of  composition 
came  to  be  performed.  He  never  had  the  double  task 
to  do,  at  once  of  thinking  what  he  should  say,  and  how 
he  should  say  it.  The  one  was  over  before  the  other 
commenced.  He  never  began  to  write  till,  in  its  subjects, 
and  the  order  and  proportions  of  its  parts,  the  map  or 
outline  of  the  future  composition  was  laid  down;  and 


WHY   WORTH  REMEMBERING.  l6l 

'T  this  was  done  so  distinctly,  and  as  it  were  authoritatively, 
that  it  was  seldom  violated.  When  engaged,  therefore,  in 
writing,  his  whole  undivided  strength  was  given  to  the 
best  and  most  powerful  expression  of  pre-established  ideas. 
So  far  before  him  did  he  see,  and  so  methodically  did  he 
proceed,  that  he  could  calculate,  for  weeks  and  months 
beforehand,  the  rate  of  his  progress,  and  the  day  when 
each  separate  composition  would  be  finished.'* 

Many  men  have  had  as  much  mental  deliberation  as  is 
here  described,  but  the  wonderful  thing  in  Chalmers  is 
ithat  he  combined  with  it  a  vigour  of  imagination  which 
brightened  and  illustrated  all  that  he  said  or  wrote,  and 
above  all  a  temperament  of  intensity,  a  rush  and  glow  as  of 
a  prophet.  Here  lay  the  great  secret  of  his  life  influence, 
his  attractiveness,  his  eloquence,  and  his  sway  over  men. 
He  was  no  dainty,  finical,  self-conscious  creature,  but  an 
earnest,  resolute,  impassioned  man,  to  whom  truth  was 
great  and  life  was  very  real.  Yet  the  passion  of  high 
purpose  or  enthusiasm  which  bore  him  along  never  con- 
fused his  judgment.  On  one  occasion  an  opponent  in 
the  General  Assembly  remarked  on  the  excitement  with 
which  he  had  spoken.  On  which  he  exclaimed  in  sur- 
prise, *'  Exceeted^  Sir !  exceeted !  I  am  as  cool  as  an 
algebraic  problem."  And  no  doubt  it  was  so.  His 
temperament  gave  blazing  ardour  to  his  speech,  but  his 
intellect  worked  on  clear,  calm,  and  undisturbed. 

Is  Dr.  Chalmers  remembered  as  he  ought  to  be  ?     A 


l62  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

generation  has  arisen  which  seems  to  have  rather  hazy  no- 
tions about  him.  His  fame  cannot  wax  dim  among  those 
who  have  any  personal  recollection  of  the  great  men  and 
stirring  questions  in  the  first  half  of  this  century;  but  his 
works  are  now  little  read,  and  the  idea  having  gone 
abroad  that  he  has  not  much  to  teach  us  either  in 
philosophy  or  theology,  there  is  an  insufficient  sense  of 
the  part  which  he  played  in  his  own  generation  and  the 
service  which  as  a  pioneer  he  has  rendered  to  ours.  In 
Scotland  he  is  remembered  and  eulogised  by  the  seniors 
in  all  the  Churches  ;  so  also  in  Ireland  and  in  the 
Colonies.  In  the  United  States  of  America  his  sermons 
and  the  lectures  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  have  had 
a  large  sale,  and  probably  still  command  a  considerable 
circulation.  But  comparatively  few  Englishmen  read  or 
talk  of  Chalmers. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  his  association  in  his  later 
years  with  a  party  rather  than  with  the  wider  circles  of 
earher  days  has  had  some  ill  effect  on  his  posthumous 
reputation.  The  Free  Church  was  very  proud  of  him, 
and  naturally  took  all  the  advantage  it  could  from  that 
clarum  et  veiierabile  nomeii  ;  but  this  of  course  tended  to 
cool  the  feeling  of  others  who  did  not  accept  the  position 
or  like  the  temper  of  the  Free  Church.  This  feeling, 
originating  in  Scotland,  came  into  England,  where  the 
admiration  of  Chalmers  had  lain  in  great  measure  within 
the  favoured  ecclesiastical  and  university  circles.  Men  who 


WHY    WORTH  REMEMBERING.  1 63 

had  raved  about  his  genius  so  long  as  he  championed  the 
cause  of  national  establishments  of  religion  found  out 
that  he  had  been  overrated  so  soon  as  he  placed  his  prin- 
ciple of  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  above  the  advantage  of 
union  between  Church  and  State,  and  became  the  lead- 
ing spirit  in  a  Free  Church. 

No  one  disputes  that  he  was  a  great  orator,  one  who 
could  rouse,  convince,  entrance  his  audience.  A  country- 
man, after  hearing  him,  gave  it  as  the  supreme  evidence  of 
his  power  that  "  the  people  daurna. /wasn'iW  he  let  them." 
Scottish  congregations  have  an  inveterate  habit  of  cough- 
ing, and  often  keep  up  a  sort  of  platoon  fire  all  through 
the  service.  Chalmers  seems  to  have  had  such  command 
over  them  that  they  held  their  breath  till  he  reached  his 
period ;  then  some  sighed,  and  the  rest  fired  their  cough 
as  a  volley.  Then  another  silence,  and  another  volley  to 
follow.  But  the  oratorical  grandeur  of  Chalmers  has  more 
distinguished  witnesses,  winning  as  it  did  spontaneous 
and  glowing  tributes  from  such  consummate  judges  of 
eloquence  as  Canning,  Jeffery,  Cockburn,  and  Gladstone. 
The  influence,  however,  of  oratory  is  evanescent.  The 
address  may  be  reported,  the  sermon  published,  but  the 
projecting  power  and  kindling  ardour  of  the  speaker  are 
gone. 

Chalmers  was  quite  a  voluminous  author — rather  too 
voluminous.  The  complete  edition  of  his  works  issued 
in  his  lifetime  comprises  twenty-five  volumes.     Of  these, 


164  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

two  are  on  Natural  Theology,  two  on  Christian  Evidences, 
one  on  Moral  Philosophy,  two  on  Political  Economy, 
five  on  Establishments  and  the  Parochial  System,  one  on 
Church  Extension,  two  are  made  up  of  tracts  and  essays, 
and  ten  are  sermons  and  lectures  on  Scripture.  Besides 
these  there  are  nine  posthumous  volumes.  The  literary 
bulk  is  too  great,  and  we  have  an  impression  that  the 
*'  Institutes  of  Theology  "  and  one  volume  of  the  very 
best  of  his  sermons  culled  out  of  the  heap  would  carry 
down  the  reputation  of  Chalmers  to  posterity  with  distinc- 
tion, even  though  all  the  rest  should  be  allowed  to  fall 
into  oblivion. 

Some  of  the  out-and-out  admirers  of  our  author  will 
not  admit  that  his  style  is  redundant.  They  say  that  it 
is  massive,  elevated,  billowy.  Be  it  so  ;  still  it  is  a  style 
that  does  not  bear  to  be  read  so  well  as  to  be  heard.  It 
is  too  declamatory,  and  at  times  almost  turgid,  though  it 
is  never  weak  or  obscure.  The  pubUshed  sermons  were 
well  suited  both  in  arrangement  and  diction  for  effect  in 
the  pulpit,  but  on  that  very  account  may  not  secure  a 
permanent  place  in  literature.  They. were  always  written 
as  in  the  presence  of  an  imagined  congregation,  and  so 
have  the  vividness  and  palpitation  of  a  spoken  style. 
They  are  never  dull  or  tame,  nor  do  they  fritter  away 
their  force  in  minutice ;  but  they  have  a  wonderful 
amount  of  iteration,  and  labour  and  belabour  the  point 
in  hand  in  a  way  that  tires  or  provokes   an  intelligent 


WHY   WORTH  REMEMBERING.  1 65 

reader.  Dr.  Chalmers  believed  in  '■^\)i\Q  dimdcrlieadedness 
of  the  public,"  and  accordingly  drove  or  beat  his  main 
ideas  into  his  hearers  with  vehement  repetition.  An 
audience  will  bear  this  from  an  eminent  and  eloquent 
speaker,  but  readers  are  apt  to  grow  impatient. 

What  was  good  in  the  style  of  Chalmers — its  dignity, 
lucidity,  and  graphic  force — came  of  the  largeness,  clear- 
ness, and  momentum  of  his  intellect.  What  was  faulty 
in  it — as  its  tendency  to  redundance — came  of  his  writ- 
ing so  much  for  public  speaking,  and  his  eagerness  to 
make  his  meaning  known  and  felt.  He  stated  and  re- 
stated his  points,  and  turned  them  over  and  over,  and 
insisted  on  them  ;  and  all  this  was  well  under  his  ardent 
and  even  impetuous  delivery,  but  on  the  printed  page  it 
is  not  so  well.  Educated  persons  prefer  a  style  at  once 
more  quiet  and  more  terse.  And  in  proof  of  this  obsen^e 
how  the  sermons  of  Newman,  Kingsley,  and  Robertson 
are  admired,  while  the  more  diffusely  eloquent  discourses 
of  Melville  and  Archer  Butler,  after  being  loudly  praised, 
are  soon  forgotten. 

It  was  a  smart  saying  of  Robert  Hall,  that  the  mind  of 
Chalmers  seemed  to  "  move  on  hinges,  not  on  wheels. 
There  is  incessant  motion,  but  no  progress."  Hall  was 
more  discursive  in  thought,  and  in  style  far  more  finished. 
But  Chalmers  knew  what  he  was  about,  and  secured  the 
efiect  at  which  he  aimed.  He  concentrated  his  force  on 
one  important  truth  at  a  time,  turned  it  round  and  round 


K 


1 66  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

in  every  light,  and  would  not  leave  it  till  he  had  made 
full  demonstration  of  it  to  those  who  heard  him,  and 
pressed  it  home  upon  them  with  all  his  energy.  Till  this 
was  accomplished  he  would  not,  and  could  not,  pass  on 
to  other  matters.  In  this  sense  it  may  be  admitted  that 
he  moved — he  was  born  to  move — on  hinges,  and  not  on 
wheels.  And  it  must  also  be  admitted  that  this,  while  it 
may  arrest  and  convince  an  audience,  may  not  suit 
so  well  the  quiet  examination  of  students. 

We  have  no  intention  of  claiming  for  Dr.  Chalmers  a 
commanding  position  in  every  intellectual  pursuit  that  his 
energetic  spirit  touched.  It  is  said  that  he  cannot  rank 
high  among  philosophers,  and  we  admit  it.  He  might 
have  been  a  great  mathematician  if  he  could  have  devoted 
his  life  to  that  study  which  first  roused  his  mental  facul- 
ties.  He  might  very  probably  have  won  distinction  as 
an  astronomer,  chemist,  or  geologist  if  he  had  followed 
out  his  early  predilections ;  and  yet  his  practical  and 
philanthropic  turn  of  mind  would  in  all  likelihood  have 
drawn  him  aside  from  pure  science  to  its  uses,  in  the 
adaptation  of  scientific  principles  to  profitable  arts.  When 
he  was  a  young  country  minister,  in  the  year  1811,  he 
got  permission  from  "the  heritors  "  to  laygaspipes  in  the 
new  manse  of  Kilmany,  before  the  introduction  of  coal 
gas  for  domestic  use;  so  confident  was  he  that  "gas 
would  succeed,"  and  so  desirous  to  have  the  manse  all 
ready  for  the  coming  improvement. 


WHY    WORTH  REMEMBERING.  1 67 

In  the  philosophy  of  abstract  and  reflective  thought 
much  cannot  be  looked  for  from  a  man  of  many  studies 
and  occupied  with  many  affairs.  Eminence  in  such 
abstruse  investigations  is  attainable  by  few,  and  by  those 
only  on  condition  of  close  and  long-continued  applica- 
tion. A  place  may  be  allowed  to  Chalmers  in  the  ranks 
of  Scottish  philosophers,  but  scarcely  in  the  front  line ; 
and  the  course  which  such  studies  have  taken  since  his 
death  has  not  increased  the  value  of  his  writings.  He 
could  expound  Reid,  combat  Hume,  and  discuss  Des- 
cartes and  Leibnitz ;  but  he  did  not  touch  the  problems 
of  modern  Metaphysics  and  Ontology.  He  has  little  to 
say  to  a  generation  of  students  who  work  on  Schelling 
and  Hegel,  on  Hamilton,  Mansell,  and  Spencer,  and 
who  puzzle  themselves  over  the  conditioned  and  uncondi- 
tioned, the  £go  and  the  A^on  £go,  the  Infinite,  the  Abso- 
lute, and  the  Incognisable.  Of  his  philosophic  writings 
Isaac  Taylor  gave  the  following  estimate  in  the  year  1856 : 
"  Admirably  adapted  as  they  were  to  effect  their  imme- 
diate purpose — a  purpose  conservative  and  confirmatory, 
as  related  to  the  diffuse  intellectuality  of  the  times  in 
which  they  appeared,  and  well  adapted,  too,  as  they  still 
may  be,  to  meet  the  same  order  of  intellectuality  at  this 
time  or  in  any  time  future,  they  wholly  fail  to  satisfy  the 
conditions  of  philosophic  discussion,  such  as  it  has  of 
late  years  become." 

We  do  not  ascribe  to  Dr.  Chalmers  any  great  impor- 


1 68  THOMAS   CHALMERS, 

tance  as  an  original  thinker  on  theology.  He  adhered  to 
broad  lines,  and  expatiated  in  broad  spaces  of  truth, 
avoiding  and  evidently  mistrusting  intricacies  and  nice- 
ties in  doctrine.  He  put  famiUar  thoughts  in  strong 
lights.  He  expounded  well,  and  enforced  admirably. 
4-^  Above  all,  he  enthused  his  students,  if  the  term  may  be 
allowed.  But  he  has  not  done  much  in  respect,  either  of 
method  or  of  substance  of  thought,  to  advance  theological 
science.  What  must  have  sounded  well  when  spoken,  and 
reads  well  as  written,  if  we  take  it  out  of  the  wrappings 
of  the  Chalmerian  phraseology,  really  does  not  amount 
to  much  more  than  what  is  familiar  and  commonplace. 
Wistful  hesitating  spirits  will  not  find  much  to  help  them, 
and  perplexed  students  will  be  apt  to  say  that  the  line 
is  not  let  down  very  far  into  the  deep.  Moreover,  as 
we  have  already  indicated,  there  is  no  recognition  of  the 
historical  genesis  of  doctrine,  or  of  its  growth  in  Scrip- 
ture and  in  the  thoughts  of  men ;  and  without  this  the 
hunger  of  present-day  students  of  theology  cannot  be 
satisfied. 

Nevertheless  he  rendered  inestimable  service  to  Chris- 
tian teaching  and  life.  We  are  disposed  to  put  this  first 
among  his  claims  to  be  remembered  ;  and  it  may  be  well 
to  set  down  those  claims  in  order. 

I .  Chalmers  did  much  for  the  Evangelical  Rroival.  He 
brought  all  the  force  of  his  mind,  and  all  the  influence 
and  reputation  which  he  acquired  in  many  directions,  to 


WHY   WORTH  REMEMBERING.  l6g 

the  promotion  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  At  a  period  wlien 
evangelical  religion  was  pooh-poohed  as  fanaticism  in  tlie 
more  cultivated  classes  of  society,  and  such  frigid  produc- 
tions as  Blair's  Sermons  were  admired,  he  stood  forward 
to  share  the  reproach  of  the  more  spiritual  preachers  in 
England  and  Scotland,  and  to  correct  the  prejudice  with 
which  they  were  regarded.  A  new  and  powerful  voice 
was  heard  declaring,  in  tones  that  commanded  attention 
and  respect,  the  insufficiency  of  human  righteousness  to 
merit  admission  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  proclaim- 
ing after  the  manner  of  St.  Paul  that  salvation  is  not  by 
virtue  or  by  works,  but  by  Divine  grace  through  faith  in 
Christ,  in  order  to  virtue  and  good  works.  Less  cele- 
brated preachers,  equally  to  be  honoured  for  fidelity, 
were  immensely  encouraged  by  having  among  them  a 
man  of  such  intellectual  dimension  and  force.  The  tone 
of  the  public  mind  began  to  change.  No  one  could 
allege  that  Chalmers  was  a  fanatic,  short-sighted,  and  of 
narrow  sympathies  ;  no  one  could  call  him  a  Afr.  Feeble 
Mind ;  and  he  held  and  preached  with  an  untiring  in- 
sistance  the  freeness  and  simplicity  of  the  Gospel. 

Discredit  has  often  been  cast  on  the  evangelical  cause 
by  an  apparent  alliance  with  intellectual  timidity,  and  a 
mistrust  of  science  and  letters,  Chalmers  did  something' 
to  counteract  this  impression.  While  he  was  a  devout 
and  child-like  believer  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  he  had 
no  lear  whatever  of  the  ultimate  results  either  of  scientific 

12 


170  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

discovery  or  of  literary  research  or  criticism.  He  loved 
scientific  pursuits,  and  the  company  of  scientific  men. 
And  though  he  was  no  great  /iUSra/eurhimself,  and  could 
not  be  called  learned,  he  was  all  his  life  long  an  advocate 
of  high  education  and  erudition.  He  was  one  of  the 
first  to  urge  that  the  standard  for  matriculation  in  the 
Scottish  Universities  should  be  raised  ;  and  if  he  did  not 
himself  go  far  into  Biblical  literature  and  criticism,  it  was 
not  that  he  either  dreaded  or  despised  the  study.  He 
strongly  commended  it  to  his  young  theologians  in 
Edinburgh,  and  expressed  a  hope  that  some  of  them 
would  "  rise  to  be  the  future  Griesbachs  and  Hugs  and 
Michaelises  of  Scotland,  and  so  able  to  cope  with  the 
Neologists,  and  with  the  infidel  and  demi-infidel  Biblists 
of  Germany." 

Besides  the  imputation  of  intellectual  weakness,  the 
evangelical  revival  was  hindered  by  a  charge  of  moral 
negligence.  It  was  said,  in  some  quarters  is  still  said, 
that  a  gospel  of  free  and  instant  salvation  is  administered 
and  received  as  a  pleasing  cordial,  a  species  of  soothing 
syrup  for  the  soul ;  and  that  men,  when  warned  against 
good  works  as  "  deadly  doing,"  allow  themselves  great 
laxity  of  conduct,  and,  so  long  as  they  are  spiritually  com- 
fortable, care  and  do  little  for  others.  This  also  Dr. 
Chalmers  in  many  ways  helped  to  refute.  His  teaching, 
while  evangelical,  was  strongly  practical.  In  the  pulpit 
and  through  the  press  he  constantly  urged  on  believers 


WHY   WORTH  REMEMBERING.  171 

the  obligation  to  good  works ;  and  in  the  missions  which 
he  led  among  the  poor  both  in  Glasgow  and  in  Edinburgh 
he  showed  how  evangelical  Christians  ought  to  apply 
themselves  to  cure  the  plagues  of  society,  redress  wrongs, 
and  promote  righteousness. 

2.  Chalmers  considered  the  case  of  the  poor.  We  have 
seen  that  his  advice  on  pauperism  was  not  followed  by 
the  public  authorities,  and  the  demonstration  which  he 
made  in  Glasgow  of  a  more  excellent  way  than  relief  by 
Poor  Law  officers  was  allowed  to  drop.  Nevertheless 
his  testimony  on  this  subject  is  not  lost,  and  perhaps  has 
a  good  deal  yet  to  effect  Not,  indeed,  that  the  relief  of 
the  poor  can  now  be  undertaken  by  the  State  Establish- 
ments of  religion,  as  Chalmers  at  first  desired.  The 
Established  Churches  are  no  longer  in  such  a  relation  to 
the  population  of  Great  Britain  as  to  make  it  fair  either 
to  grant  to  them  or  to  impose  on  them  the  care  of  the 
poor.  But  with  the  present  system  no  one  is  pleased. 
This  legalised  pauperism  is  monstrously  expensive,  and 
has  in  it  no  element  of  remedy  or  hope.  It  may  be  im- 
possible to  replace  it  by  the  plan  of  Chalmers ;  but  his 
argumentation  is  not  on  that  account  superfluous  or  use- 
less. Who  can  tell  if  we  may  not  fall  on  some  modified 
system  of  districts  traversed  and  visited  by  a  volunteer 
Christian  agency  under  a  combination  of  Christian 
Churches  for  this  very  purpose,  and  so  repeat  substan- 
tially the  memorable    work  of  Dr.    Chalmers    and   his 


-f^ 


172  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

coadjutors  in  Glasgow?  At  all  events  his  reasonings 
and  demonstrations  remain  to  help  those  philanthropists 
who  wish  for  a  closer  union  of  public  charity  with  remedial 
influences  and  efforts,  and  who  want  to  go  down  to  the 
roots  of  our  prodigious  and  even  disgraceful  pauperism, 
and  there  apply  both  prevention  and  cure. 

3.  Chalmers  was  a  master  in  Christian  finance.  He 
could  calculate  and  systematise,  and  yet  was  no  mere 
manipulator  of  money,  but  knew  how  to  throw  a  powerful 
moral  element  into  the  operation  of  his  plans,  and  so  to 
keep  up  the  tone  and  character  as  well  as  the  pecuniary 
productiveness  of  Christian  giving. 

It  was  no  new  thing  that  Christian  congregations  should 
pay  their  own  way  and  support  their  own  pastors  without 
endowments  either  from  pious  ancestors  or  from  the  State. 
What  was  new  in  the  great  problem  with  which  Chalmers 
dealt  so  successfully  in  his  later  years  was  the  self-support 
of  a  collective  Church  on  a  national  scale.  The  Free 
Church  of  Scotland  stretched  itself  all  over  the  country  as  a 
sort  of  parallel  Establishment,  and  claimed  to  be  in  spirit 
and  in  principle  the  genuine  Church  of  Scotland.  It  was 
therefore  out  of  the  question  to  gather  congregations  only 
where  they  could  sustain  themselves,  and  leave  rural  and 
remote  districts  without  a  Free  Church  ministry,  because 
the  population  might  be  sparse  or  poor.  With  all  his 
strong  persuasions  in  favour  of  a  Church  being  every- 
where localised,  Dr.  Chalmers  was  especially  anxious  to 


WHY    WORTH  REMEMBERING.  1 73 

prevent  any  such  partiality.  So  he  devised,  as  we  have 
already  related,  a  Central  Fund,  to  be  raised  by  weekly  or 
monthly  offerings  gathered  from  the  people  of  the  Free 
Church  at  large,  and  to  be  devoted  to  the  common 
support  of  the  ministry.  His  object  in  this  was  not  only 
to  guard  the  honourable  independence  and  self-respect  of 
individual  Pastors,  that  they  might  not  be  the  mere  paid 
officials  of  this  or  that  congregation,  but  more  especially 
to  bind  the  Church  together,  to  impart  to  it  an  element 
of  steadiness,  to  diffuse  through  it  a  consciousness  of 
brotherhood,  and  to  make  it  possible  to  extend  it  to  every, 
even  the  poorest  and  most  distant,  parish  of  Scotland. 
In  this  he  succeeded,  and  may  be  said  to  succeed  more 
and  more.  The  Free  Church  of  Scotland  is  no  mere 
Church  of  the  towns,  but  is  everywhere ;  and  raises  a  re- 
venue for  sustentation  with  as  much  regularity  as  Church 
or  State  anywhere  can  show  in  obtaining  its  enforced 
resources.  The  same  system,  with  proper  modifications 
to  meet  local  circumstances,  has  been  adopted  by  the 
Presbyterian  Churches  of  England  and  Ireland,  and  some 
of  those  in  the  Colonies.  In  other  quarters  the  plan  is 
being  studied  with  anxious  interest.  If  such  a  fund  can 
save  an  unendowed  National  Church  from  the  danger  of 
breaking  to  pieces,  or  having  to  withdraw  its  ministry  from 
poor  districts,  small  villages,  and  remote  parishes,  it  takes 
away  one  of  the  chief  grounds  of  that  dread  and  repug- 
nance with  which  most  men  who  have  been  bred  in  an 


174  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

Established  Church  naturally  regard  the  prospect  of  its 
disestablishment  and  disendowment. 

4.  Uiahners  was  a  great  pioiiea'  in  Home  Mission  zuoi'k 
of  the  best  kind.  Not  merely  by  eloquent  speech,  but  by 
yet  more  eloquent  example,  he  showed  how  Christian  truth 
and  influence  may  be  diffused  among  the  poor  and 
neglected  on  a  strictly  localised  or  territorial  system.  He 
is  teaching  still.  There  are  no  more  successful  organisa- 
tions for  the  reclamation  of  what  are  roughly  described 
as  the  lapsed  masses,  than  the  Territorial  Missions  and 
Churches  in  Edinburgh,  Glasgow,  and  Dundee ;  and  all 
of  these  are  on  the  Chalmerian  West-Port  model. 

In  England  there  is  much  need  to  learn  in  this  matter 
of  Dr.  Chalmers.  There  are  many  district  missions  and 
gospel  halls  in  populous  cities  and  towns ;  and  the 
work  is  carried  on  at  immense  expense,  yet  with  very 
inadequate  and  desultory  results.  No  doubt  there  is  a 
difference  between  the  fields  of  experiment.  In  Scotland 
the  working  classes  have  never  turned  their  backs  upon 
the  Church,  and  the  lapsed  are  those  who,  through 
penury  or  vice,  have  given  up  church-going  habits,  but 
still  have  lurking  at  the  bottom  of  their  minds  a  feeling 
that  they  ought  to  wait  on  God  and  hear  His  Word ;  and 
the  effort  of  the  district  visitor  is  to  revive  and  strengthen 
this  latent  feeling.  But  in  English  towns  large  masses 
of  the  common  people  are  notoriously  estranged  from 
public  worship.     They  have  no  latent  feeling  or  twinge  of 


WHY   WORTH  REMEMBERING.  175 

conscience  about  the  matter.  Consequently  the  mission 
curates  and  district  visitors  have  to  appeal  to  lower  motives 
and  coax  them  to  services  by  doles  in  winter,  by  enter- 
tainments and  tea-parties  at  the  expense  of  others.  Some 
are  caught  in  this  way;  others — and  those  often  the  more 
manly  spirits — turn  away  because  they  don't  want  charity 
and  condescension;  and  district  churches  for  the  poor 
turn  out  to  be  very  expensive  institutions,  scarcely  able  to 
continue  unless  endowed  by  some  rich  man,  or  attached 
to  some  wealthy  congregation.  Besides  these,  there  are 
preaching  halls  and  mission  rooms  for  the  working  classes, 
with  theatres  thrown  open  on  Sunday  evenings  to  catch 
those  who  cannot  even  be  coaxed  into  a  place  of  worship. 
These  efforts  are  all  well  meant,  and,  we  trust,  have  their 
reward.  But  they  do  not  even  attempt  to  develop  Church 
life — to  conserve  the  fruit  of  their  labour.  We  venture 
to  say  that  what  are  now  wanted  are  mission  premises  on 
a  plain  but  large  scale  in  the  midst  of  working  class 
districts — such  premises  to  contain  a  church  or  chapel  of 
considerable  size,  with  a  liberal  allowance  of  chambers 
great  and  small,  to  be  used  as  prayer-rooms,  class-rooms, 
club-rooms,  reading-rooms,  and  tea-rooms ;  and  these  in- 
stitutions or  premises  made  centres,  each  of  them,  of  a 
systematic  Christian  agency  within  definite  limits,  with  the 
view  of  not  only  preaching  the  Gospel,  but  also  supplying 
to  the  people  Christian  instruction  and  consolation,  and 
all  those  advantages  of  religious    fellowship   which  are 


-r 


176  THOMAS   CHALMERS. 

more  needful  to  the  poor  and  ill-educated  than  to  the 
rich  and  those  who  have  abundant  access  to  religious 
literature.  A  great  deal  of  preparatory  work  may  be  done 
in  preaching  halls,  but  it  is  only  preparatory;  and  the 
proper  sequel  is  the  Chalmerian  plan  of  the  thorough 
exploration  of  a  manageable  district,  and  the  erection  and 
full  equipment  of  a  working  men's  church. 

On  all  these  accounts  let  Thomas  Chalmers  be  re- 
membered. Those  who  knew  him  need  no  such  exhor- 
tation. Those  who  were  his  students  or  his  helpers  cry 
with  an  air  of  triumph,  "  We  were  with  Chalmers,"  as 
soldiers  who  had  been  in  the  Peninsula  or  at  Waterloo 
used  to  say,  "  We  were  with  Wellington."  Indeed  he 
was,  as  Tennyson  says  of  the  great  Duke, 

**  Rich  in  saving  common  sense, 
And,  as  the  greatest  only  are. 
In  his  simplicity  sublime. 

•*  To  such  a  name  for  ages  long, 
To  such  a  name, 

Preserve  a  broad  approach  of  fame, 
And  ever-rintjing  avenues  of  son":.'* 


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